Quote:
Originally Posted by iggy_oi
This is why how this is implemented is very important. Automation and outsourcing combined with an increasing population size will make the job market very difficult in the future. The money to fund a guaranteed basic income will need to come from somewhere. As the labour pool decreases, more of that funding will either come from businesses or those who are still employed. Look at the current resistance people put up to any tax increase to create programs for the benefit of the less fortunate, how many people are going to want to continue to pay increasingly more to fund a basic income as the job market continues to decrease? There is no guarantee of how quickly that will escalate, but what happens when the number of unemployed greatly outnumbers the amount of income earners? Once businesses become the majority contributor how long will it take before people start being told "the basic income level needs to be reduced otherwise businesses will be forced to close"?
It is a very slippery slope, I'm not saying it's a bad concept or won't work, however without proper implementation this could very easily lead to a small percentage of the population dictating what everyone else should have because they control all the wealth. Does that sound more like a renaissance or the dark ages?
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Strange Mysteries has a segment on future developments where they talk about universal income (starts at 21:25). It's highly subjective, but still interesting to think of the potential it has.