Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
I’ll humour you a bit more than Corsi, as your assertion that UBI doesn’t work because it doesn’t fix the problem and is simply “giving people money and accepting they will never have a job” is wrong.
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To add to what blankall wrote, I’m not trying to suggest that people will stop wanting to work, I’m suggesting that if the number of job losses due to automation outpaces the number of jobs being created many people will not have the option to work. For that reason I’m of the opinion that more would need to be done beyond a UBI to address the job losses due to automation. Added funding for training and skills upgrading for jobs that need to be filled would be a good place to start.
The other problem with not taking steps to get people who lose their jobs due to automaton working in new jobs is that as more and more jobs are eliminated the revenue that pays for the UBI will continually decrease. Proponents of UBI generally argue that this shortfall will be made up through businesses being taxed on the additional profits created by their labour cost savings, while it’s true this will help maintain revenue it ignores the fact that people who were previously making $50k-$80k will lose a significant portion of their income which will reduce consumerism and in turn decrease the tax revenue generated from a large number of businesses while putting some of those businesses at risk of shutting down altogether.
IMO a UBI is at best a stop gap solution that will only work in the short term and will lead to bigger problems down the road as revenue to pay for it comes from fewer and fewer sources.