{"id":2510,"date":"2015-10-18T19:53:10","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T00:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=2510"},"modified":"2015-10-18T19:56:01","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T00:56:01","slug":"ubi-an-critical-part-of-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2015\/10\/18\/ubi-an-critical-part-of-capitalism\/","title":{"rendered":"UBI: A Critical Part of Capitalism?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federico Pistono writes<\/a> in a NewScientist<\/strong><\/em> (3 October 2015, paywall) opinion piece about the unintended, er, consequences of UBI – unconditional basic income:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a simple concept with far-reaching consequences. The state would give a monthly stipend to every citizen, regardless of income or employment status. This would simplify bureaucracy, get rid of outdated and inefficient means-based benefits, and provide support for people to live with dignity and find new meaning.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest UBI experiments, involving a whole town in Canada<\/a> and 20 villages in India<\/a>, have confounded a key criticism \u2013 that it would kill the incentive to work. Not only did people continue working, but they were more likely to start businesses or perform socially beneficial activities compared with controls. In addition, there was an increase in general well-being, and no increase in alcohol, drug use or gambling.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He notes that this is only an initial study, of inadequate size and design – but still very interesting.\u00a0 I should think one of the eventual study insights will be the recognition by the study participants that they do not have to risk everything in order to try out a business concept – there will always be a way to put food on the table.\u00a0 I recognize this is contrary to the American mythos of the inventor or businessman who risks all to start a business, succeeds, and is granted great riches and glory – but think about it, just how moral is it to risk your family’s security, possibly its very existence<\/em>, just so you can start a business?\u00a0 That, of course, is a question which a perfectly rational person would shake their head to – but humanity is neither rational nor particularly, in general, moral; we are subject to whimsy, to obsessions, to the needs and requirements of a brain out of context.<\/p>\n

Pistono’s statement also punctures another old myth – that humanity is a bunch of lazy SOBs who wouldn’t work without the lash of hunger and insecurity across their shoulders.\u00a0 This old myth, which, it occurs to me, is used to justify the greed at the top of many corporate ladders (and I’ll happily grant this fellow an exception<\/a>).\u00a0 Remember that out of context brain?\u00a0 It requires stimulation and challenge, the chance to explore, whether it be new ways to make textiles or valleys on Mars.\u00a0 By giving folks a predictable, stable base, they can begin exploring the landscape that interests them the most. From this, I have to wonder about knock-on effects.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Creatvity<\/em>.\u00a0 A small explosion of creativity may occur as folks use this modicum of security to try to new solutions to old problems, or attempt solving new problems in themselves.\u00a0 It would be very interesting to watch these experiments and measure the creativity unleashed, and how well it works in Canada vs India.\u00a0 Which culture is more creative?\u00a0 Which upbringing constrains innovation?\u00a0 That could cause some fireworks.<\/li>\n
  2. Employee stability<\/em>.\u00a0 How stable is employment at established companies in these zones?\u00a0 At larger companies?\u00a0 Smaller?\u00a0 How about measuring companies’ hierarchical components and correlating it with employee stability?\u00a0 If an employee is not constrained by hunger to retain a job, then how much happier must a company keep their employees?<\/li>\n
  3. Employer reactions<\/em>.\u00a0 I know that, years ago, the large automakers in the United States were actually for single payer health systems, because that would allow them to simplify their HR departments.\u00a0 But how would employers feel about UBI?\u00a0 They could maybe lower wages, but if employee stability was lower, the costs of training more new employees might not be worth it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I can easily see a healthier, better educated workforce<\/del> populace.<\/p>\n

    For those who’ll rear up and shout about socialism, I have a few observations.\u00a0 First, we’re a lot wealthier than we used to be; second, change is good (I’ve observed that many 50+ year old men will hunch their shoulders and mutter, “Change is baaaad!” – including me<\/strong><\/em>) in general, as we explore the general problem of societal survival in a world undergoing change that impacts us all; and, as the greater context of this opinion piece is robots and the impact on jobs (I’ve written about that before here<\/a> and here<\/a>), we must consider how those whose jobs are eliminated by intelligent robotics (if, indeed, that is permitted to happen) will continue to be fed & housed – because idle, hungry hands are devil’s ….<\/p>\n

    …. which reminds me of my friend Chris Torkildson, who, declaiming that idle computer cycles were the devil’s plaything, wrote a program of deduction for an otherwise idle computer, and fed it a whole bunch of facts.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a little stunning when it asked if a platypus was a mammal or a bird.\u00a0 But idle computer cycles does suggest some necessary questions about how much an app, or an AI, should be paid for its work.<\/p>\n

    Here<\/a> is the UBI-Belgium website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Federico Pistono writes in a NewScientist (3 October 2015, paywall) opinion piece about the unintended, er, consequences of UBI – unconditional basic income: It\u2019s a simple concept with far-reaching consequences. The state would give a monthly stipend to every citizen, regardless of income or employment status. This would simplify bureaucracy, \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2510"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2519,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions\/2519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}