Thank you for your response! I agree with you wholeheartedly, in fact, I used to be a big supporter of basic income.

That being said, I’ve come to the conclusion that while a basic income is a great short-term solution, it is not viable in the long-term.

There are many problems (in the long-term) with simply patching up the economic devastation left by technological unemployment by giving everyone free money.

So here would be my solution:

The premise of basic income is that all human needs can be fulfilled autonomously (thus the job loss). Let’s embrace that!

Rather than have everybody trade currency and hope that people get what they need, let’s update the economy entirely.

Rather than trade currency, let’s have a network of sensors, A.I., and machines. The sensors measure demand, A.I. meets that demand by using machines to produce and distribute what is needed.

In other words, a network of technologies that work to intelligently fulfill demand.

For example, you might be running low on chocolate milk. Your fridge’s sensors pick up on this and order more. The milk is autonomously produced in some factory and then a self-driving truck (or drone) delivers it to your home.

Going on a holiday to a tropical island? Sure. Book a flight on your phone, have a self-driving car (that was produced in an automated factory) drop you off at the airport (that was built by autonomous robots). Your plane (manufactured autonomously, too) flies itself (autonomously) to your lovely resort (which was built, and is cleaned, maintained, etc. — you guessed it — autonomously).

Now, you’re probably getting sick of reading “autonomously”. My point is this:

If jobs are automated, why not simply automate the economy?

I look forward to writing articles clarifying this solution to technological unemployment and exploring it in more depth.

You can think of it as basic income on steroids.

I’d love to hear your take on this solution :)