As a worker in the aerospace industry, I have seen the production of airplanes move from manually intensive labor to a fully robotic endeavor. As of yet, the process itself is housed in a building intended to be fully sealed and progress is moving in this direction. Workers who make $40/hour will be out of work. On a similar vein, automated kiosks at the doctor’s office and restaurant tables take orders, and put people making $10/hour out of work.
Amazingly, drywall installers’ jobs are in jeopardy, as seen in the video below:
What are we to do as AI and robotics replace work on the higher and lower end of the spectrum? Are we ready as a society to see our citizens remain idle or starve? Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a proposed solution to this problem. UBI is a mechanism by which all people in a society are guaranteed an income to cover their basic needs.
According to a MIT study, millions of jobs will be eliminated by AI and robotics within 10-years. This will only progress faster as businesses strive to save money:
Enter cryptocurrency. Projects like Manabase and Swiftdemand offer daily and weekly payments in digital assets. Millions of people could subsist on these cryptographical creations. Consider also mainstream cryptocurrencies like STEEM and ETH, which are highly scalable and quick. Cryptocurrency has the ability to fill the gap for families who have been displaced by automation and AI. Each family would simply confirm they are a citizen and that they are still alive during the pay period.
There are downsides to UBI, as illustrated in this article:
https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/10/09/universal-basic-income-has-been-tried-before-it-didnt-work/
UBI experiments have been conducted, and the resulting impacts included a loss of income and the problems with including government red tape and organization. Tech billionaires like Elon Musk are in favor of these programs, but those who control the income source may control how individuals spend and conduct business. Where is the impetus to create new business when our needs are always fulfilled? Simply put, UBI is only meant to cover the basic needs. Entertainment, yahts mansions and other trappings must be covered by an individual’s other endeavors.
Below are links to Manabase and Swiftdemand. They are my referral links for full disclosure. I have been using these services and find them to be interesting:
https://www.swiftdemand.com/?referred_by=wstanley22
https://www.mannabase.com/?ref=qe3URxDV7j
Published in my Trybe account I own at: https://trybe.one/cryptocurrencys-role-in-universal-basic-income/
Published in my Steemit, Golos, Whaleshares, Serey and Weku accounts I own. Follow me!