What do you think?
I think in the face of AI taking over many tasks, we need to rethink about how we frame the future of society. Reframing Universal Basic Income as Automation Compensation means presenting the policy as a way to make up for jobs and income lost due to automation and AI. Instead of viewing UBI as a general welfare payment, it becomes seen as compensation paid to everyone for the value automation creates, supporting those whose work is replaced by machines and helping everyone share in productivity gains. Especially in the US, the average person doesn’t like the idea of someone getting something that they’re personally not receiving. So framing it as a compensation that everyone receives regardless of employment status I think is the only feasible way forward.
I prefer to consider it a “citizenship dividend”.
In the US, political power is (ostensibly) derived from We The People. We convey our political authority to government. The government uses that authority to provide the service of “law and order” to taxpayers. But the government does not (currently) compensate We The People for the use of our political authority.
That can change. We can, and should, receive dividends on our investment.
Yea I agree, but getting people behind the idea is difficult. Too many idiots nowadays would think “dividend” and “We The People” is communist or some stupid shit. The word “Compensation” would break through a lot of the idiots brainwashing and bring more people together as they see robots literally do the work that they could have done and been paid for.
Nah, “dividends” are easy to understand, as are “investment”, “shareholder”, etc. That’s all capitalist language. You are getting paid because you are allowing another entity to use something that belongs to you. You’re “renting” something out. You are entitled to compensation for another’s use of your property.
Under capitalism, a robot performing labor means that the owner of that robot is entitled to the compensation for that labor. That robot is owned by a businessman, but the compensation you’re talking about isn’t being paid to that businessman. It’s being paid to a citizen who has no ownership interest in the robot.
That’s consistent with their understanding of “socialism” or “communism”.
They will hate it, as it makes it sound like they aren’t “rugged individualists” who can survive on their own. It makes it sound like they can’t adapt to the free market, and need to rely on charity.