The Great American Share – Sam Altman Interview on Basic Income
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Re: The Great American Share – Sam Altman Interview on Basic Income
#2[deleted]
Re: The Great American Share – Sam Altman Interview on Basic Income
#3UBI is a thinly veiled attempt by elites to buy the consent of those of us who then can't just drug or satiate with cheap goods. I won't fall for it. Consume the rich!!
Re: The Great American Share – Sam Altman Interview on Basic Income
#4We did this interview with Sam a few weeks before he posted his recent essay on the topic. Not having to coordinate illustrations definitely helps with publishing speed. :) During the interview, we realized it was the first time I had heard him talk about the GDP idea as an answer to the branding problem of bringing UBI to America.
Re: The Great American Share – Sam Altman Interview on Basic Income
#5What astonishes me is how often I see a BI proponent is also a bitcoin proponent. The government can’t be trusted not to devalue our currency but at the same time we should introduce a system which makes our livelihoods dependent on the whims of bureaucrats.
Re: The Great American Share – Sam Altman Interview on Basic Income
#6In ancient Rome there were a few honest reformers who felt bread subsidies (classical UBI) were deserved by the people. It was an economic argument (as is Sam's) since Roman conquest generated massive wealth that did not reach the masses who made it possible.
It was an honest attempt at economic reform by a few forward thinking leaders. Within a generation the movement was captured by politicians who used its popularity to further their ambitions. The fight against opponents self-perpetuated and wins became more important than change. The program morphed to the infamous bread and circuses, subsidizing a city of a million people that ultimately collapsed.
I will aplaud the reformers but some things never change.
Re: The Great American Share – Sam Altman Interview on Basic Income
#7I largely agree with what's being said in this interview, except for a few comments:
> "But in countless ways it’s much harder to convince lawmakers and politicians to give every person in the country cash gratis than it is to guide a start-up to a nine-figure valuation."
You don't have to convince lawmakers to do it. It's possible to implement basic income without any direct government support.
> "The question I’m interested in: How do we unlock maximum human potential?"
This is almost the right question, but not exactly. The right question is "how do we unlock the economy's prosperity-maximizing capacity?" It's not about how how we get the most out of humans. It's about how we provide the most for humans.
> "Obviously, there are a lot of people who could do great things that would benefit all of us. Create art, start companies and yet they can’t."
This is true, but human labor is just one of many resources that we're not using to their full potential. By narrowly framing things just in terms of what we can get out of humans, we're limiting the possibilities of basic income.
> "One of the things that people forget is that if the robots really do come, yes, they will eliminate or change a lot of jobs, but the cost of goods and services will just go down and down and down."
Sort of. Monetary policy will prevent deflation. So the price of the things people need to buy will always remain stable. It's just that people might get more stuff for free.
> "What I would propose is a model like a company where you get a share in U.S. Inc. And then, instead of getting a fixed fee, you get a percentage of the GDP every year."
This is a mistake. The economy has the capacity to produce a certain amount of wealth for people. That amount is difficult to calculate ahead of time. Measures like GDP are probably not going to help. But the appropriate amount of basic income is always going to correspond to the amount of spending that the economy can productively respond to.
Re: The Great American Share – Sam Altman Interview on Basic Income
#8I think reinstituting a 2 year (or whatever length of time) national service requirement is a much more realistic, practical way of moving the country, and this general discussion, forward.
UBI feels like a tactic with too many complications and opportunities to distort incentives, motivations, etc.
Re: The Great American Share – Sam Altman Interview on Basic Income
#9UBI is a thinly veiled attempt by elites to buy the consent of those of us who then can't just drug or satiate with cheap goods. I won't fall for it. Consume the rich!!
I was with you until that consume the rich business.
Re: The Great American Share – Sam Altman Interview on Basic Income
#10What astonishes me is how often I see a BI proponent is also a bitcoin proponent. The government can’t be trusted not to devalue our currency but at the same time we should introduce a system which makes our livelihoods dependent on the whims of bureaucrats.
> The government can’t be trusted not to devalue our currency
Governments can often be trusted to maintain a stable value of currency. That's why fiat currency out-competed gold and why Bitcoin will never be able to compete with a well-managed fiat currency.
> we should introduce a system which makes our livelihoods dependent on the whims of bureaucrats.
There are robust ways to implement basic income that don't depend on "the whims of bureaucrats."