An opinion essay arguing that Universal Basic Income is unlikely to ever be implemented as AI and robotics displace human labour, exploring counterarguments and proposing democratic global governance or universal AI-company share ownership as possible alternatives.
UBI is a fairytale we tell ourselves to postpone the panic, a lie spun by tech bros to postpone the realisation, that It Ain’t. Gonna. Happen. “Without UBI how will capitalists make money?” The idea is that companies must give money to the unemployed so they can buy more stuff and make the companies richer. If this is true, it would be the easiest moneymaking scheme ever. I mean, why not give everyone a billion dollars each? Right now? There is a name for this, it’s called circular financing. You might as well just pay the AI agents and robots for their work and get them to buy your stuff with it. What I think is more plausible is a universal basic loan, lending the poor money to buy from the rich. There is a name for this. It’s called indentured labour. Otherwise, sure the economy as we know it will end and you’ll just have a load of capitalists living off their accrued wealth to date and the resources their AI continues to extract and refine which I am sure they will be fine with. Bezos spent £100m “Without UBI the people will revolt” aka the French Revolution, etc. These revolutions largely succeeded because the army was either overwhelmed or joined the revolution. All I have to say to this is “robot army” https://en.engineai.com.cn/product-t800 “Without UBI the workers will withhold labour” you can’t withhold something that is no longer scarce. “UBI is the right thing to do”. Companies generally are paperclip optimisers designed to maximise wealth, constrained by law. They don’t just do stuff because it’s the right thing to do. “Governments will tax companies to fund UBI” companies will just move to a low or no UBI country and sell stuff to the high UBI countries for as long as the latter last. “Fuck, what could solve this?” The only thing I can think of is a democratic world government, that enforces UBI and enforces a flat global tax rate and UBI income, or universal share ownership in AI companies; to avoid the kind of arbitrage described above. Right now governments are still stronger than companies - witness everything Trump has been able to do to bring US companies to heel. Governments can still solve this, while they are still powerful and are elected to represent the interest of the people, but time is running out. What do you think? Im interested in arguments on points 1-5 above and the possible solution. Unfortunately, the more likely outcome is the last quadrillionnaire wanking and crying alone in a bunker but, hopefully not.
A discussion post questioning the economic and political feasibility of Universal Basic Income (UBI), arguing that the math and incentive structures don't support its implementation, especially at a global scale.
Discusses the concept of universal basic intelligence where countries develop sovereign AI using open source models, providing free basic access to citizens while protecting data, enabling trusted products.
A blog post addressing common misconceptions about abundance, post-scarcity, and UBI, arguing that AI-driven recycling and automation can yield endless services from finite resources, with UBI/UHI serving only as transitional tools during uneven automation rollout.
An opinion piece arguing that fear of AI replacing jobs is largely fear dressed as moral outrage, and that humanity will eventually adapt to AI-driven automation, possibly through UBI or a new economic model.
The author argues that AI and robots taking over most jobs could lead to a better world with universal basic income, freeing people from mandatory work and solving many social problems.