In Reply to: It probably beats Universal Basic Income* posted by Fuzzy on March 16, 2024 at 12:12:58
Automation is eliminating jobs. Productivity increases and AI are also eliminating jobs. The jobs that are gone are not coming back. The economy is not creating enough jobs to compensate for what's being lost.
A model that turns on everything from the cradle to the grave having a price tag cannot remain viable for long. So you either have to transfer some purchasing power to the masses that are no longer participating in production of value or you will have to make basic services free. Otherwise it's the end of capitalism, replaced by something different, equally exploitative and more dystopian, in all likelihood.
I think a mistake we keep making is to assume that the way things have been thus far is pretty much how things will go on. Even though history is filled with moments where existing structures change radically.
Imagine hundreds of years ago a wealthy landowner laughing at the concept of workers in his land being paid for their labor.
Things change.