Pranab Bardhan at his own Substack:
In my last substack piece I discussed the need for voice of labor in influencing the R & D decisions of companies in shaping the pattern of innovations in a labor-absorbing direction—otherwise increasingly more powerful AI is likely to make most workers redundant in their current jobs and tasks. In the latter eventuality how will people survive in that not-too-distant future? The Big Tech entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley and elsewhere—which include some avowed libertarians (though being libertarian has not usually stopped them from lobbying for large government contracts) and some open supporters of political parties with neo-Nazi roots—have often suggested a simple solution: Universal Basic Income (UBI).
I have been intrigued by this suggestion. If more of the current types of labor-replacing AI which Big Tech is rushing to bring about are in our inexorable future, and in that future if most people have no jobs and thus no income (nor any income taxes to pay), how will UBI be financed? In the US, for example, a level of UBI for everyone at even the current dismal official poverty line of the country will exhaust more than two-thirds of the federal budget, leaving very little for anything else.
More here.
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