The article indicates towards a future where automation takes up a greater role in our professional lives, essentially replacing people and leaving them out of jobs. An example would be of Uber experimenting with driverless taxis and trucks; the latter vehicle is currently a form of employment for 3.5 million drivers and 5 million others who support the truck-driving industry. Criticism has been aimed at politicians for failing to take the problems of an automated future seriously.
It is a growing belief among tech workers at the Silicon Valley that this would require a solution in the form of a universal basic income to be considered soon. The suggestions include a basic income of $10,000/year or an increase in carbon emission taxes as payment. Studies have already begun about paying people money they did not earn, such as Y Combinator, a tech accelerator, funding a research project paying a hundred people enough money to ensure food and shelter without any strings attached.
The middle-class is increasingly being isolated economically and with forty percent of American jobs now being contingent, the idea of a basic income needs to start being discussed on a higher platform soon.
Article link: http://www.npr.org/2016/09/24/495186758/as-our-jobs-are-automated-some-say-well-need-a-guaranteed-basic-income
It makes sense that more firms are switching to automation because it is less expensive for them when they produce. The idea of a base income or carbon emission tax is good and might help the middle class.
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ReplyDeleteThe only way I can see this being feasible is if we significantly increase taxes in areas outside of gas powered vehicles. If we were to tax carbon output of private citizens vehicles, They would ultimately have less disposable income. As people feel the burden of these taxes, They will substitute away from say gas cars, toward electric, or other alternatives. Thus, the problem of affordability persists. Perhaps a cut in Government spending could help; however that would have externalities such as decreasing the exchange rate, or increasing the interest rate. These macro concepts should be considered before thinking it a base income is a viable solution.
ReplyDeleteSince the moment machines could handle any sort of repetitive task, humans have worried about their own impending uselessness. It's no longer a question of if machines will replace human labor, but a matter of when. Early economic and political theorists could not predict the impact technology would advance economic growth, but who could. What's interesting to note is even though technology is taking away jobs, in the long run it has led to the creation of more jobs.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is inevitable that technology will replace some occupations, I think it is important that we don't only see the downside of this. For example, machines have already replaced people in a lot of the manufacturing that is still done in the US, but this has opened up jobs in creating these new technologies and maintaining them, jobs that didn't exist before. Technology has and will continue to change the types of labor demanded by the economy, but I think automatically equating that with the end of human labor is an oversimplified approach.
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