SOSC 1510 Lecture 20: Automation and a basic income
Document Summary
Automation: it"s a variation on an old theme. New technologies = higher productivity = lower unit costs = lower prices = increase in sales = greater demand = produce more (hire more workers) Automation impacts: job reconfiguration and job polarization. Underutilized potential (low wages hold full automation back) The fight over working time and its disappearance. The rise of the right to work. Universal (unconditional) basic income (ubi): an income paid to all individuals (funded through general taxation) Everyone receives it (without work obligation, irrespective of other paid income) Unconditional, no one applies or must meet any eligibility requirements (no means test, no virtue stipulation) It"s set a meaningful level (saying no is a real possibility. It could substantially reduce poverty without the stigma of means-tested programs. It turns productivity into leisure rather than unemployment. Redefining work and labour (toward the former, away from the latter) A step forward: no panacea, but toward somewhere better.