We’re gonna need universal basic income. Maybe in 30, 50 years, but it really depends on how quickly ai, robotics and automation scales to completing most of the tasks of the labor force. There is no economic endgame where the median person isn’t stripped of their ability to live a dignified life.
Proposal (1 hour of thinking - needs work)
Every year, everyone with significant amount of assets (significant could mean above a threshold, or categories including stock and realty) pays 5% of their net worth to taxes.
Every month, every person gets an equal slice of the money that is collected. (Opt-out, not opt-in)
This will have a downward pressure on stocks. Forced to sell, the shares move from owners of stocks to retail investors.
Homes will be owned in pieces, like shares. Once you own a property, the government takes 5 percent of your ownership each year. Once it’s below X percent you can buy back in or you get liquidated and you move.
Before you get angry at me for suggesting such heresy, you must understand that the world going forward will not look anything like the world you grew up in!! A long time ago, society was struggling to pull itself out of poverty and despair. We needed all of the efforts of everyone to come together and make sure we were all taken care of. Now, tons of people work in jobs that don’t contribute to the greater good. UBI won’t reward people for doing nothing. It will provide a baseline level of security for people who didn’t ask to be born into a world where there’s nothing they’re being asked to do and no way for them to support themselves.
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