Do we all agree now that UBI is the right thing to do?

[ajax18]

UBI, it's free money for everyone. It'll end poverty, not like Great Society ended poverty but for real this time. Who would ever be skeptical of someone offering you free money?

The main point of this thread, Ajax, is that it's Musk making the pitch. Are you prepared to say that the most far-right billionaire who did more than anyone else to put your guy in the house and then ran DOGE is wrong? Your only other choice is to say that he's lying. So which is it, Ajax, is Musk a two-bit liar or his he completely smoking crack?

I don't understand how Musk could be right about UBI, at least the way you framed his argument. Nobody is going to build an AI machine, including any government, just so that they can write the whole world a check for $1500/month. I don't believe there will be no more doctors in 5 years. I don't even believe there will be no more optometrists in 5 years. People have been predicting that since before I took my OAT, and they've all been wrong because as it turns out it's not as satisfying for people to complain and blame the machine as it is another organic person.

[Gadianton]

I don't need to frame very much, the quote is the quote, he said:

Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI. AI/robotics will produce goods & services far in excess of the increase in the money supply, so there will not be inflation.

Nobody is going to build an AI machine, including any government, just so that they can write the whole world a check for $1500/month

It sounds like you're calling him a filthy liar. I agree. Par for the course.

I don't believe there will be no more doctors in 5 years

I think the mid-term future is very bright for healthcare -- in terms of profits at least. What about other jobs? What about service jobs, delivery drivers, people stocking shelves -- it won't be five years, but it's not hard to imagine robots taking all of these jobs within my lifetime. What are those displaced to do for work? Entire classes of labor will be wiped out. I don't think LLMs can do this but advancements in real AI potentially.

[Limnor]

I’ve been wondering how UBI would apply to small business owners.

[Some Schmo]

Data Centers have turned out to be yet another big business environmental threat, sucking the electrical grid resources in the places in which they're built, and their consumption should be taxed to give the locals who have to put up with them to subsidize their utilities. That will only happen with legislation. People who are laid off due to AI should be compensated as well. That would be the minimum, before any UBI.

I don't know how sustainable "AI" really is. The backlash against it is only growing.

[canpakes]

I don't need to frame very much, the quote is the quote, he said:

Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI. AI/robotics will produce goods & services far in excess of the increase in the money supply, so there will not be inflation.

Nobody is going to build an AI machine, including any government, just so that they can write the whole world a check for $1500/month

It sounds like you're calling him a filthy liar. I agree. Par for the course.

Yes, it sounds a bit like a bad sales pitch to get more people on board with the idea that a handful of billionaires scooping up even more wealth in order to become trillionaires is a good thing for the average person, because then they’re going to give all of us poors a pony.

Ajax might want to consider that he is worth as much to that small class of people as the homeless addict sleeping in a cardboard box down by the river.

[ajax18]

What about other jobs? What about service jobs, delivery drivers, people stocking shelves -

It's not like any of those jobs require extensive and expensive training. The money saved on paying workers for these services will be spent or invested in salaries for workers providing new products and services.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

What about other jobs? What about service jobs, delivery drivers, people stocking shelves -

It's not like any of those jobs require extensive and expensive training. The money saved on paying workers for these services will be spent or invested in salaries for workers providing new products and services.

Hey, Ajax. Do you actually understand you’re a damn-up? Do you have any awareness whatsoever that you caused the situation we’re in right now? Do you understand we’re screwed because of this war? The tariffs? The excommunication of the world? Do you get it at all in that dim brain of yours? The inflation? Can you comprehend this?

[canpakes]

It's the billionaires who raised our standard of living above that of our ancestors. Being poor was far worse in the past than it is now.

When did that begin, and which billionaires were they, and how did these billionaires being billionaires raise your standard of living?

Use yourself as an example, and pick a billionaire.