UBI or Universal Basic Income which is proposed by democratic candidate Andrew Yang is misunderstood by not only the general population but by some very educated people. Yang is an American Lawyer and entrepreneur. He is not a socialist. In case you don't know, entrepreneurs and especially lawyers generally don't fair well in a real socialist society. He is a visionary who warns us of the grave consequences of ever emerging technology and automation.
"My fellow citizen-humans, I have seen the horrors upon horrors birthed from the cold and antiseptic womb of automation. Our world has become a different place, a place of implacable mathematical deduction, an emotionless vacuum of pure logic. a crystalline Libertarian ideal realm where mankind has been reduced to the servants, living curious, and even pets of the robotoid over- race. I've seen welding arms burn men where they stand, manipulator armatures disassemble screaming children with analytical precision, relentless tracks grind fleeing women and their contraband infants into their own bloody footprints. And that automated nightmare grew from seeds sown in our own time. We must take action now before we are forced to take up arms to fight the unconquerable."
These are not the words of a dreamer or a modern version of John Lennon's "Imagine". These are the words of a pragmatist. So how does this fear of automation and UBI tie in? More and more jobs will be replaced by automation, displacing millions of workers. Amazon is already talking about remotely driven trucks. This technology is at our fingertips and will revolutionize cargo transportation. It is estimated there are 3.5 million truck drivers currently employed in the US. If only a fraction of them are displaced, it will have devastating effects on our economy. Many other jobs in medicine, accounting, security, pharmaceutical, and engineering will be eliminated or reduced because of technology. If we don't set up a safety net now for the displacement of these workers, it will be disastrous in the future. We must adopt a more egalitarian outlook in this country if we are going to survive.
UBI is basically a trickle-up economic idea. The more money people have the more they will spend. And all the concerns critics have that such a plan would lead to inflation or misuse of the money by the recipients, are exactly the same as if the recipients would have gotten the money by any other means.
The great discrepancy of wealth in this country, much of it made through technology, has made it both possible and necessary to implement UBI.
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I don’t disagree that automation is going to reduce the total number of labor related jobs in the economy...my argument with Mr. Yang is that he has not realistically addressed how to pay for the proposed UBI. The 10% VAT (which happens to be incredibly regressive) does not come close to raising the required revenue to pay for the $3+ trillion in UBI payments...and traditional “welfare” programs don’t cost more than $500 billion at most at this time...he’s at least 50% short on revenue and realized savings required to pay for the UBI. And we haven’t even begun to talk about paying for the Medicare for all plan that he also favors.
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