Year 2040: What do people do for a living?

This question has been in my mind for quite a time now. What we are witnessing or will witness is that jobs are getting obsolete within a generation of it’s creation, which never used to be the case. People today need an ever evolving skill set to keep up with the advancements.

But time will come when these advancements will be so disruptive and frequent that humans will be unable to keep up. We also know for a fact that a lot of jobs could be automated as of today, the only thing stopping them is loss of jobs which will cause chaos.

But more jobs will be created, right?

Yes, new job titles will emerge but not at scale at which the population is going to grow or even looking at today’s population. Earlier, new jobs were created at a scale comparable to that of population but the coming jobs would require less people.

Then comes in Basic Income, you have probably heard about it.

There are two kinds of people when it comes to basic income.

1. The first being the people who are excited for it and hope it comes within their lifetime.
2. The other people believing that the model cannot sustain and will be unsuccessful if tried.

But the idea that we will get money without doing anything is alien to us, so let’s move a little back in time when slavery used to exist. The idea is;

Most of us accept things as per the world we live in.

At the time of slavery, I am very sure a lot slaves would have accepted the idea as normal. Being able to choose what to do and not to do was a luxury for them. Today we look at that time and say “People had to work forcefully?”. Some people might not agree with this analogy but just consider what people would be saying in the future;

People had to work to get food and shelter?

So, basic income was always supposed to be a basic right and now it makes more sense and fits into place.

In fact if basic income is applied today, the advancements would pace up as now there will be more room for it. All the jobs being automated will result in reduced costs and efficient use.

So, what will people do?

More and more people would channel into personal interests like arts, music or even video games. Actually we are already witnessing that with the increase in number of people who primarily do that, like various Youtubers, their increase has not affected the economy in a bad way. This means that even if they were doing something very mainstream then that would not matter.

People will not think of incentives as means of living but as means of betterment which will create a positive culture and more ways for pleasure and entertainment.

Well, what is stopping it?

I think the regulation and stability of it is the main problem. Last year Swiss people voted on a referendum that included a question about implementing a universal basic income, people were not in favor of the idea. Also a lot people who make more money than the proposed basic income don’t want it, what they don’t get is that with basic income, eventually the costs would reduce and they will be living similar lifestyles.

Basic income does not stop people from doing work, it replaces jobs with machine and AI wherever it is possible, removing the thought that it would affect the people loosing their jobs.

Basic income cannot be declared on a day. It has to be gradual and eventual. Like recently there has been support to “4 working days a week.” Income could also be gradually increased, not all in once. This way people could better adapt and be prepared for it and will eventually accept it by looking at the benefits it comes with.

Would love to hear what you have to say about this, are you in favor or not?