Universal Basic Income Is an Inevitable Part of Our Automated Future
So let’s embrace it.
The 2008 financial crisis is proving to have been an important marker in the 21st century because of the lingering effects it’s had on the global economy, particularly in North America and most of Europe. It set the stage for a wide revival of populist politics not seen since the 1930s, and has caused many to resent the side-effects of neoliberal capitalism, which include pitting the world’s wage workers against one another for the benefit of a few at the top of the pyramid.
Accordingly, every election cycle since 2008 has featured politicians making the same old promises about creating jobs and putting people back to work. President Trump has promised to repatriate jobs that have fled overseas by implementing a combination of business-friendly tax cuts, and toying with the idea of placing tariffs on imports. The theory is that barriers to trade give an advantage to domestic firms and reduce the labour pool, creating jobs and keeping wages high.
Measures like these sound effective until you look at the big picture. Factory jobs that went to Asia and elsewhere did so because they can pay lower wages that way. If your running shoes were sewn together in Canada or the US — where labour regulations and minimum wage requirements mean that workers…
