by Karl Widerquist | Apr 8, 2016 | News
The automation argument for basic income has reached the New York Times as an article by Farhad Manjoo argues that automation will replace millions of jobs and the best solution might be basic income. This is one of many recent articles around the world making the connection between technological displacement of workers and basic income.
Toby Deller has a slightly different take on automation in an article in Rhinegold Publishing, which has published content aimed at people in the music and performing arts industries since 1976. This article worries that the current state of automation has led increasingly to an insecure gig economy even if it has not decreased the number of available jobs.
Deller writes, “For musicians the benefits are clear. Peripatetic teachers, freelance players, composers, conductors are all among those with quiet periods of the year to negotiate (one of the worst coming at exactly the time that self-assessment tax payments are due). A guaranteed few quid would be a welcome security net. But the UBI would do more than address that. … The truth is that for musicians, for any artist, having to work is not the chief obstacle: it’s not being able to work. The universal basic income promises to lower that obstacle in the most socially responsible way – just one reason why the classical music industry should be joining the debate, lobbying for its introduction.”
Articles mentioned:
Toby Deller, “The arts world should look outside itself and campaign for universal basic income
Farhad Manjoo, “A Plan in Case Robots Take the Jobs: Give Everyone a Paycheck.” New York Times, March 2, 2016
Stuart Goldenberg via the New York Times
by Andre Coelho | Mar 31, 2016 | News
André Coelho
In this 30 minutes podcast, Armando F. Sanchez interviews André Coelho, Basic Income News editor. Motivated by all recent developments related to automation, global job loss, precariousness and social unrest, CEO, broadcaster and author Armando F. Sanchez has started The Future of Today series, in which this podcast features as the opening show. In this podcast, the central theme is basic income, discussed as a possibility for dealing with present day social challenges, particularly related to work organization.
More information at:
Blog Talk Radio, Armando F. Sanchez program Latino Role Models & Success, “André Coelho, Ph.D., Discussing Basic Income”
by Kate McFarland | Mar 30, 2016 | News
Gerd Leonhard, the acclaimed futurist speaker and author, believes that a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) might be a necessary consequence of increased automation.
Last February, Hank Pellissier of the Institute of Ethics & Emerging Technologies interviewed Leonhard on his “opinions and forecasts” regarding BIG.
In the brief interview, Leonhard discusses the conditions that he sees as prerequisites for the adoption of a BIG, concluding that “a basic income guarantee is only possible once we unbundle work money, and once the traditional mantra of profit and growth at all costs has collapsed.” He is optimistic that, eventually, societies will assume this post-capitalist outlook.
After addressing questions on BIG-related topics, including Switzerland’s basic income referendum and technological unemployment, Leonhard broaches the idea of “automation tax,” which “companies would pay for each job replaced by a machine.” In Leonhard’s view, an automation tax may be an effective means of providing governments with money to reinvest in “creating a flourishing society and allowing for human happiness.”
Read the interview here:
Hank Pellissier, “Basic Income Guarantee will allow us to move the Maslow Pyramid – interview with Gerd Leonhard”. Institute of Ethics & Emerging Technologies, February 7th 2016.
For more about Gerd Leonhard, including videos and descriptions of speaking topics, see his website.
Image credit: ictQATAR
by Kate McFarland | Mar 22, 2016 | News
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Last October, the program AlphaGo, developed by the Google division DeepMind, stunned the world by becoming the first AI agent to defeat a professional Go player — a decade ahead of experts’ predictions of such a feat. Then, in March, AlphaGo surpassed expectations yet again, winning a match against champion player Lee Sedol.
In his recent article “Robots Will Take Your Job” (Boston Globe), basic income advocate Scott Santens explores the implications of advanced AI — machines like AlphaGo — for employment and the economy. Thanks to advances in the branch of machine learning known as deep learning, artificial agents are now able to replicate increasingly complex cognitive tasks. A consequence is that automation now threatens not only routine, manual jobs but many highly-skilled, cognitively-demanding ones as well.
Backing his claims with quotes from leading AI researchers, such as Chris Eliasmith and Andrew Ng, Santens makes the case that this tide of ever-more-sophisticated automation demands that we “seriously start talking about decoupling income from work” and explore a universal basic income.
Read the article here:
Scott Santens, “Robots Will Take Your Job,” Boston Globe, February 25th, 2016.
Update:
Following AlphaGo’s victorious match against Lee Sedol, Santens updated and extended this article, publishing the new version in Medium. The new piece is available here:
Scott Santens, “Deep Learning Is Going to Teach Us All the Lesson of Our Lives: Jobs Are for Machines,” Medium, March 16th, 2016.
by Stanislas Jourdan | Jan 7, 2016 | News
A report written by a government agency dedicated to Digital Affairs for the French Ministry of Labor recommends experimenting with an unconditional basic income to cope with the fundamental transformations of work in the context of the growing digital economy.
How do automation and digitalization of activities impact working conditions? This was one of the key questions the National Digital Council was tasked to address in a report sponsored by the French Ministry of Labor and Social Dialogue. The Digital Council is a public agency created in 2012 to advise the French government on matters related to the digital world.
The report was released earlier this week – see the full report here. It makes an important case for basic income, and calls for a thorough appraisal of “the various proposals and experiments around basic income”. Basic income is part of the twenty main recommendations contained in the report.
Minister of Labour is sceptical but does not reject the proposal
The Minister of Labor Myriam El Khomri was not so enthusiastic but did not close the door on the idea: “I do not want to dismiss it, but at first sight I am not sure about its cost,” she said.
According to the report, the existing social protection model has been pushed to its limits, and the labor market has failed to reward many different forms of activities, and thus provide an income to everyone.
These phenomena are not new, but technology is accelerating the trends. Automation is displacing jobs and killing aggregate demand in the economy. The development of invisible forms of production on the internet – what is commonly referred to as ‘digital labor’ – is leading to new forms of production that do not remunerate people for their work. As a consequence, there is a need for new kinds of redistribution systems, such as a basic income.
The report reviews many common arguments for introducing an unconditional and universal basic income, and quickly sketches different proposals on how to implement it. These include a reform of the tax-benefit system, various forms of money creation (such as quantitative easing for people), and raising corporate taxes to remunerate invisible and unpaid labor.
Although the report does not express a preference for a specific proposal, it calls for two concrete steps:
- A feasibility study on basic income to be conducted by a team of economists, statisticians, fiscal and legal experts. The aim would be to develop a simulation tool of the transition to a basic income, and carry out an impact assessment of each proposal in the public debate.
- Local basic income experiments that complement the feasibility study and consider various scenarios.
“We cannot ignore this movement.”
“This is the first time a report of a public agency discusses a basic income linked to digital transformations” Benoit Thieulin, one of the report authors, said. “Governments need to seize the opportunity and help with the reform of our solidarity and redistribution models. Experiments are conducted in several countries, we cannot ignore this movement.”
Basic income was only the last of 20 recommendations, yet it made most of the headlines in French media.
“For a long time I have also been sceptical about basic income … I wasn’t too convinced,” Thieulin explained in an interview. “But today this idea puts everything into question. Especially now that the welfare system is cracking everywhere. Half of the people don’t claim their benefits! Administration costs are enormous! … At some point one has to ask if it would not be simpler, less expensive and more beneficial for all if we had a universal safety net.”
The French Movement for Basic Income, a BIEN affiliate, was among the organisations consulted during the writing process and welcomed the release of the report. “It is a timely report that opens the debate in the best possible terms,” International Coordinator Nicole Teke said to BIEN.
The French government has commissioned another report to review all social benefits, with special attention to be paid to the existing minimum income scheme. The French Movement for Basic Income announced that it will submit proposals to pave the way for the introduction of a basic income.
