By B.N. Frank
Many of us have loved ones who are victims of Age Discrimination. Some have been forced out and replaced with younger employees. Some never find work again. This has been going on for decades.
Automation has also contributed to job loss. According to many sources, including the Progressive Populist, this is going to get much worse. That’s why tech inventors have proposed a Universal Basic Income (UBI):
Driverless cars! IBM Watson! News-writing robots! Amazon Go! The future is here, friends, and it apparently excludes humans. People are preparing for the next mass extinction—an evaporation, if you will—not of humans, polar bears or other creatures, but of jobs.
How will people earn enough money to support themselves and their families when all the jobs are taken by robots?
And how to keep from pointing the proverbial finger at the overlords of Silicon Valley?
According to the article, UBI has been discussed in the U.S. before – even in the late 1960s by then President Nixon and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The amount most agreed upon is $1,000 a month.
Tech moguls recommend that everyone receives UBI – not just the unemployed.
How thoughtful. But isn’t that Communism?
And will it work? Maybe not. Finland just called it quits on their 2-year UBI program:
With high-profile champions such as Richard Branson, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, backing the idea of governments giving non-working people money (from working people) to do nothing – what could go wrong?
Well, two years after enthusiastically beginning its experiment with a universal basic income – in which people are paid an unconditional salary by the state instead of benefits – Finland is abandoning the project as government enthusiasm wanes and additional funding requests are rejected.
It’s still unlikely that this will stop tech moguls from recommending UBI. According to the Progressive Populist, it seems to benefit them the most:
The true beauty of UBI, though, lies in its capitalist welfare: Tech giants keep profits high, while the government pays people not to work or to continue to work for ever-lower wages in a gig economy.
It’s a check to keep the masses, well, in check.
Indeed – the masses need to be kept in check so when most of us lose our jobs, we all don’t go completely ballistic and set the country on fire – perhaps with flamethrowers purchased from none other than Elon Musk. Coincidentally Elon announced he was selling these flamethrowers while large sections of California were on fire. Stay classy, Elon.
Tech guru and investor, Sam Altman, on UBI:
- …perhaps 90% of people receiving UBI would “go smoke pot and play video games,
- …if 10% of people go create new products and services and new wealth, that’s still a huge net win.
A huge net win? Tell that to all the parents who hoped their kids would be able to grow up, move out, get jobs, and support themselves instead of having few options other than to “go smoke pot and play video games” until they die. Tell that to everyone who doesn’t like smoking pot, playing video games, has a mortgage to pay, and family members to feed.
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg referred to UBI as “cushion” that would “enable everyone to try new ideas that could change the world.”
Spare me. It may be possible for some people to change the world on $1000/month. But it’s not possible for MOST people to change the world on $1000/month.
It’s not even possible for most people to live healthy lives on $1000/month.
The article reports that “The data say it’s a great idea.”
Their data is always going to say they have great ideas until they are forced to admit their data was wrong. Ask Mark Zuckerberg about that..
Tech inventors have also told us kids needed tech in schools to be best prepared for the future. Then they’ve sent their kids to private low-tech schools and limited how much they allow them to use tech in their homes.
“Digital Addiction” hasn’t yet been declared an epidemic even though it seems to be affecting a large portion of Americans. Former Facebook president, Sean Parker, recently stated:
… the social networking site exploits human psychological vulnerabilities through a validation feedback loop that gets people to constantly post to get even more likes and comments. It’s exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology…The inventors, creators — it’s me, it’s Mark [Zuckerberg], it’s Kevin Systrom on Instagram, it’s all of these people — understood this consciously. And we did it anyway…God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.
Research says it’s not good for anybody’s brains.
Another former Facebook executive, Chamath Palihapitiya, stated he doesn’t use it anymore since he “innately didn’t want to get programmed.”
In regard to his own kids “they’re not allowed to use this shit.”
Most of us don’t think about how all these devices come with guidelines and warnings. There are reasons other than “Digital Addiction.” But the marketing is so slick that we all take for granted that everything is safe. Warnings have been popping up all along but they are quickly overshadowed by more marketing and legal speak.
No “safe” level of cell phone or wireless WiFi radiation has yet to be scientifically determined for children or pregnant women but that hasn’t stopped tech companies from marketing personal devices to everyone under the sun from cradle to grave.
Research has that proven that exposure to these devices can worsen pre-existing conditions even if it didn’t cause them. It has proven it is harmful to pets, nature, and wildlife.
The Tech Industry – also referred to as “Big Tech” and “Big Wireless” – seems to have been writing its own regulations and guidelines for 20+ years. They must own our elected officials, otherwise they wouldn’t keep promoting and passing new state and federal laws that harm us in pretty much all ways possible.
For example, the “Race for 5G”and “Smart Cities” may sound really cool until you realize that elected officials are allowing tech companies to install small cell towers pretty much everywhere including in front of homes. Research has already proven that this is harmful. Even Dr. Oz has weighed in.
On September 13, 2017, 180 scientists and doctors demanded a moratorium on the installation of 5G small cell tower infrastructure because of health concerns.
This doesn’t seem to matter.
“The Race for 5G” has been identified as a “bailout” of the Telecom Industry. These small cell towers will reduce property value. They violate our right to privacy.
Tech moguls also insist that automating everything is safer and cheaper. Sometimes they say it’s even better for the environment. Nope. Nope. Nope.
- There have been many issues identified already with automated vehicles.
- There have been many issues identified already with automated utility “Smart” Meters.
- There have been many issues already identified with the Internet of Things (IoT).
Tax dollars keep getting wasted on all of this. It’s contributing to E-Waste.
It’s possible that tech moguls are also recommending UBI to give them time to prepare for the proverbial shit to hit the fan.
According to 2017 New Yorker magazine article, “Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich”:
- Some of the wealthiest people in America—in Silicon Valley, New York, and beyond—are getting ready for the crackup of civilization.
- … in recent years survivalism has expanded to more affluent quarters, taking root in Silicon Valley and New York City, among technology executives, hedge-fund managers, and others in their economic cohort.
- In private Facebook groups, wealthy survivalists swap tips on gas masks, bunkers, and locations safe from the effects of climate change.
- Quote from one survivalist: “I keep a helicopter gassed up all the time, and I have an underground bunker with an air-filtration system.” He said that his preparations probably put him at the “extreme” end among his peers. But he added, “A lot of my friends do the guns and the motorcycles and the gold coins. That’s not too rare anymore.”
Also according to a survivalist:
…there is a deliberate move by the people in Congress to dumb America down.
They don’t want people to be smart to see what’s going on in politics.
Has Congress ever really wanted people to be smart to see what’s going on?
According to the Progressive Populist article, tech moguls are saying that massive job elimination is inevitable.
Global business leaders Richard Branson and Elon Musk say a UBI will become a necessity as tech replaces jobs. “…can help people struggling just to survive and allow them to get on their feet, be entrepreneurial and be more creative.”
Elon Musk told CNBC that “… due to automation” he isn’t “sure what else one would do.”
Don’t you worry, Elon. Sam Altman said 90% of the unemployed will be smoking pot and playing video games.
Of course, Elon Musk has other worries, too. He had them even before he started selling flamethrowers. According to Stephen Colbert on 10/11/2017:
Elon Musk thinks Artificial Intelligence will cause World War 3.
Recently Musk also tweeted, “If you’re not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea” right above a poster that says, “In the end, the machines will win.”
And back in July, Musk issued this warning about AI: “I think people should be really concerned about it. I keep sounding the alarm bell but people keep seeing robots going down the street killing people, like they don’t know how to react.”
Colbert explains that Elon’s comment set off a feud with Mark Zuckerberg.
Mark stated that Elon’s comments were “pretty irresponsible.” Elon responded by stating that Mark’s knowledge of AI “was limited.”
We all know now A LOT about Mark’s “limited” knowledge.
Regardless, these are some of the people who are right now deciding the future of the world.
Recently comedian, Bill Maher said that every generation could be called the “What Were You Thinking?” generation.
So what are we thinking? And are we going to do anything about this besides maybe firing up a bong?
Ya, sure the “tech moguls” want it…so they can continue raping the public with their profits generated by supplanting workers with more AI and robotics. if the government wasn’t totally in bed with them (read paid off), they would institute a tax on the amazons, google, ebay, etc. to allow a program like this to work…but alas.
“…so they can continue raping the public with their profits generated by supplanting workers with more AI and robotics. …”
Conversely, if no one is working to earn money, no one is buying products as well. There’s no money to buy products. You get a basic income and are expected to pay for food, rent, utilities, your pot, your video games, your driver-less cars. That misses the point that a Basic Income won’t buy all this.
There will be a lot more jobs lost then those taken over by the robots.They don’t buy food,shoes,clothes, houses,cars,etc,etc,etc.There may be more profits with the robots doing their work but those things won’t be buying their stuff and the folks won’t have the money to buy anything much either.