M S
M S
Aug 9, 2017 · 2 min read

Sorry, but you are completely incorrect to equate capitalism and technological advances in the manner you have here. Technology is just tools and methods used to achieve an end goal, and that goal is always improvement and efficiency. Capitalism is an economic system which flourishes naturally when the constraints of government are reduced or lifted entirely. As far as your studies describing the effects of UBI, answer this simple thought experiment: If someone said they would give you a certain amount of money for a finite period of time (say 1 to 2 years), would your actions and decisions be different than if someone said they would be giving you the same amount for the rest of your life? Two entirely different proposals and the resulting behaviors are drastically different as well. Due to this fundamental flaw, ALL studies and experiments in UBI to date are relatively worthless and do not show the likely results of a fully instituted UBI.

Also, you are subscribing to an idea known as the Lump of Labor Fallacy which makes the assumption that there is a finite amount of work to be done. This is false because ‘work’ is something that is determined by our unfulfilled desires thus as long as we have desires for things and states of being, there will ALWAYS be work to be done. Sure, automation, AI, and a multitude of other more efficient methods will greatly enhance the total amount of work we can accomplish, but unless we become as gods, we will always desire more than is possible. We are NOT in some ‘post-scarcity’ utopia by any reckoning.

UBI is a fools errand and doomed to fail whenever instituted among men. If folks are allowed to pursue their own dreams, with their own limitations and talents, then the most people will continue to lift themselves beyond their current situation and continue our global decline of poverty.

    M S

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    M S