Daniel Rocha <danieldi...@gmail.com> wrote: So, during the transition, when robots are too good, but not that good, > people will be unemployed (or very, very low pay job), right? >
Perhaps, but not necessarily. Social policy such as the minimum wage can ameliorate such problems, at the cost of economic efficiency. > So, there is the UBI to fix that. Right. So, there will a very heavy > taxation on those who make robots and other productive industry and that > will be shared by the population. > I do not think the taxation would be very heavy. In the initial phase the basic income would be barely enough to survive on. Poor people could survive on it only by pooling resources, Murray suggests. The overall cost would not be much greater than present-day welfare systems. These systems are inefficient and wasteful. Murray emphasizes that. Social Security already covers a large fraction of the population. It would be replaced by this system, at no increase in cost. (You hand out the same money to people over 65 and call it "basic income.") The income will be so low, few people will be willing to live on it alone. Most people will still want to work, but perhaps for shorter hours. That is what we need during the transition. Step by step, as robots gradually eliminate most jobs, the basic income would be raised, but it would still not be much of a burden on the wealthy people and corporations, because they will be making so much more income from their ownership of robot intellectual property. Besides, if they do not go along with this, their income will drop to zero because no one will be able to purchase their goods and services. In the final phase, nearly all work is gone. Robot and computer intellectual property patents end. Most of the technology goes into the public domain. The cost of robots falls, and with robots plus cold fusion the cost of goods, services, food and other necessities of life gradually falls so much that we give everyone these things for free, the way we now give away public education, library cards and surfaced roads. No one will mind the cost, because it will be so low. A few thousand dollars a year in today's dollars. - Jed
