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The Future of Not Working
11–20 of 279 posts
Re: The Future of Not Working
#12The people with the wealth pay people for one reason and one reason only: they have to. Once they no longer have to, they will lobby the government to continue to lower taxes and squawk about laziness, welfare queens, and all that garbage. This will go on for a few decades until there is an uprising of sorts, then those with the money will return to giving everyone else crumbs, or just enough to quell the uprisings.…
You might like The Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick[1]. In this 1964 novel the world has shifted slightly: Instead of giving "just enough to quell the uprisings", large parts of the population are just kept eternally busy to support the wealthy lifestyle of a few.
Re: The Future of Not Working
#13> "The research wing of Sam Altman’s start-up incubator, Y Combinator, is planning to pass out money to 1,000 families in California and another yet-to-be-determined state."
Oh, really? Where do we sign up? I'd love to be able to build my business(es) without taking investor funds.
Re: The Future of Not Working
#14[deleted]
Re: The Future of Not Working
#15The people with the wealth pay people for one reason and one reason only: they have to. Once they no longer have to, they will lobby the government to continue to lower taxes and squawk about laziness, welfare queens, and all that garbage. This will go on for a few decades until there is an uprising of sorts, then those with the money will return to giving everyone else crumbs, or just enough to quell the uprisings.…
Marx predicted that...hundred forty years ago. Hasn't happened. History suggests revolts occur when basic needs are unmet, usually after a nation falls into debt and ruin as a consequence of war
Re: The Future of Not Working
#16The people with the wealth pay people for one reason and one reason only: they have to. Once they no longer have to, they will lobby the government to continue to lower taxes and squawk about laziness, welfare queens, and all that garbage. This will go on for a few decades until there is an uprising of sorts, then those with the money will return to giving everyone else crumbs, or just enough to quell the uprisings.…
the problem with this scenario is that it does not correctly evaluate the dynamic nature of "wealth". Money has exactly one use, and that's the fact that you can give it to people in exchange for things. The value of money itself falls in proportion to its concentration.
Re: The Future of Not Working
#17"One estimate, generated by Laurence Chandy and Brina Seidel of the Brookings Institution, recently calculated that the global poverty gap — meaning how much it would take to get everyone above the poverty line — was just $66 billion. That is roughly what Americans spend on lottery tickets every year, and it is about half of what the world spends on foreign aid." Love this.
I'm really curious about the math on that $66 billion number. According to the world bank there are about 750 million people living in extreme poverty. We only need to give them $88/year to get them out of it? And that's just the people in "extreme poverty." It'll be even less if we move up the income scale a bit.
The number seems low to me.
Re: The Future of Not Working
#18> As automation reduces the need for human labor, some
Silicon Valley executives think a universal income will
be the answer — and the beta test is happening in Kenya.
This is not the situation I think of when I hear "basic income." Why Kenya?
> GiveDirectly wants to show the world that a basic income is a cheap, scalable way to aid the poorest people on the planet.
Oh.
I was under the belief that only the middle class protested for basic income. It would have been more interesting if the "beta test" was done on educated/ first world persons, so we can finally get progress (or a full stop) on this debate.
I believe this idea wasn't thought out past the "we want to put on airs" phase. Is injecting capital into a system that relies on crime to keep afloat, really the best idea GiveDirectly could have come up with?
This is similar to the Toms fiasco where they would donate a pair of shoes to Africa for every pair bought -- it crippled the local fabrics businesses.
Perhaps if one wanted to fix the African economy, one would invest into economic think-tanks and their executionary tandems, instead of over glorified tax shelters.
Re: The Future of Not Working
#19> As automation reduces the need for human labor, some Silicon Valley executives think a universal income will be the answer — and the beta test is happening in Kenya. This is not the situation I think of when I hear "basic income." Why Kenya? > GiveDirectly wants to show the world that a basic income is a cheap, scalable way to aid the poorest people on the planet. Oh. I was under the belief that only the middle cla…
Kenya is very cheap, as opposed to a UBI trial in America, which would be far more expensive
Re: The Future of Not Working
#20> "The research wing of Sam Altman’s start-up incubator, Y Combinator, is planning to pass out money to 1,000 families in California and another yet-to-be-determined state." Oh, really? Where do we sign up? I'd love to be able to build my business(es) without taking investor funds.
I believe it's happening in Oakland for the California one at least.
Your remark about building your business without taking investor funds may have been made in jest, but most people build their small businesses through debt rather than investor equity.
For those interested in loans for building a small business, Kiva (who I work for) offers interest-free loans here in the U.S. to those without access to traditional credit or those building socially impactful businesses.