Invest heavily in retraining programs, tax concentrated wealth (of individuals and companies) more deeply, and prevent mergers of already huge companies - especially mergers from the same industry.
If the Robots Come for Our Jobs, What Should the Government Do?
11–20 of 92 posts
Re: If the Robots Come for Our Jobs, What Should the Government Do?
#12Do guaranteed minimum income. Give everybody a computer and lots of free time. If 0.001% of those people become hobbyist software developers it will pay for the program in a year. And we will probably get AI in two.
Re: If the Robots Come for Our Jobs, What Should the Government Do?
#13The government should do precisely NOTHING. The jobs don't belong to workers, so the premise is entirely wrong to begin with.
The government should do precisely NOTHING.
Exactly. It is not the job of the State to make sure everybody has a job. Arguably all the State should do is protect property rights, enforce contracts and provide some notion of a "justice system". And really, all three of those things can be debated.
The best way to think of it, IMO, is the way Bastiat[1] put it by describing "the law" as "no more than the collective extension to our individual right to self defense". (paraphrased slightly).
Re: If the Robots Come for Our Jobs, What Should the Government Do?
#14The government should do precisely NOTHING. The jobs don't belong to workers, so the premise is entirely wrong to begin with.
This is correct. It's not the government's job to provide you a job, it's a personal responsibility to find one, if you want one. If you seek one, the government might provide some minor worker abuse and discrimination protections, but this in no way implies you have entitlement to a job or even income.
Strictly speaking, you're "right" ... however, it belies an incredibly inhumane approach to life. Although I concede that reality doesn't always reflect intention, _my intention_ for government is to provide services and protections for all of us; every citizen.
While yes, that shouldn't mean one is necessarily entitled to anything, I want my tax funds going towards helping people who have unforeseen things happen to them. If they lose a job, or get sick, or their head-of-household/primary income passes away, or they are the victim of abuse ... I want my funds to help those people.
Re: If the Robots Come for Our Jobs, What Should the Government Do?
#15The government’s job should be to keep an eye that gains are shared broadly enough, and ensure increased productivity doesn’t cause excess environmental harm. (If the government funds Robotics research, all citizens should share in the windfall)
Based on your comment I think you'll really enjoy this book - I'm about 75% through it. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/280466/the-value-of-everythi... The Value of Everything by Mariana Mazzucato. One of the best economics books I've read in a very long time, well argued and not too heavy in Jargon.
The thrust of the argument is that we've misconstrued value and thus don't properly account for all the activity in the economy, overcounting things which aren't 'productive' in the historical economic sense (like finance, FB's ad market), while undercounting other activities, including those of govt - before everyone jumps on me, both Marx AND Smith agreed that finance didn't contribute to productivity, merely enabled it.
Re: If the Robots Come for Our Jobs, What Should the Government Do?
#16Do guaranteed minimum income. Give everybody a computer and lots of free time. If 0.001% of those people become hobbyist software developers it will pay for the program in a year. And we will probably get AI in two.
The total US tax revenue in 2017 was $3.422 trillion.
If you split that evenly among 300 million people, each would get $11,000, which is half of the poverty line of $22,000.
Even if you thought that little money was acceptable, to afford it you'd have to cut:
1. all military programs
2. all existing social security programs
3. all government infrastructure projects
4. all education programs
5. ...
Re: If the Robots Come for Our Jobs, What Should the Government Do?
#17>If the Robots Come for Our Jobs, What Should the Government Do?
Nothing
Re: If the Robots Come for Our Jobs, What Should the Government Do?
#18The article talks about how globalization caused automation to replace millions of factory workers. Factory jobs, aren't the greatest, especially before the 1970s, and in many parts of the world, are still awful. Similarly, If we could replace every mining job with robots we'd remove a lot of human abuse in many parts of the world.
You’d also remove the way for lots of people to make a living. The unemployed only know that making a living in a lousy industry is better than not making any living at all.
This is the reality ... it's happening. Industry will always optimize, and as technology marches forward, they will replace human workers with technology when it makes financial sense to do so.
The discussion should be, "what do we do when that happens"?
Re: If the Robots Come for Our Jobs, What Should the Government Do?
#19The simplest solution is an automation tax which is revenue neutral. Any time automation moves in to an industry, the tax's revenues can be used to help transition those workers into other work, or give them at least an automation relief stipend.
If we don't tax automation, what's to stop increasingly cheaper automation from replacing increasingly expensive first world workers? Especially when businesses are expected to increase salaries yearly, provide expensive benefits like healthcare - businesses would rather pay up-front for automation.
Re: If the Robots Come for Our Jobs, What Should the Government Do?
#20The article talks about how globalization caused automation to replace millions of factory workers. Factory jobs, aren't the greatest, especially before the 1970s, and in many parts of the world, are still awful. Similarly, If we could replace every mining job with robots we'd remove a lot of human abuse in many parts of the world.
You’d also remove the way for lots of people to make a living. The unemployed only know that making a living in a lousy industry is better than not making any living at all.
That's exactly the point. Humans rely on jobs, what happens when robots take over?