People have made their livings over the centuries by contributing their labor towards specific tasks that produce goods and services marketable to the wider society, in which they exchange their time for currency. This has been the process of income for centuries now, and it is well known that if success and financial comfort or at least plausibility requires an economic input on behalf of yourself. This system has also been one that has worked incredibly effectively for the employee, the entrepreneur, the innovation of industry and the consumer for decades, and has ensured that compensation for labor can be utilized for attaining goods and services of which other entities have created in order to sustain a lifestyle and meet needs. It has encouraged the formation of industry and the innovation of technology and has uniquely contributed to the way in which we utilize human capital to effect beneficially greater society in terms of economic growth and quality of life, however there is a new financial scheme that is being hypothesized that may pose a threat to this capitalistic model of labor. That scheme is Universal Basic Income.
The More We Create the Less Each One is Worth
Universal Basic income is a scheme that is being proposed and trialed in a multitude of nations, and offers a new way of people attaining a wage to help them to meet needs and standards. It was borne out of the ideas of the 1960's welfare initiatives that were created to help people living below the poverty line to address wage disparity. The idea states that a Government of either national, regional or local scale can implement for it's constituent citizens a guaranteed basic income regardless of existing wage bracket and societal group of usually £10,000 a year. This would mean for instance that if implemented in the City of London even Investment Bankers making £250,000 per annum with a £100,000 bonus would be just as eligible to receive U.B.I as someone earning £12,000 a year in Asda for example. So overall what we have here is an unconditional state governed wage stimulus that is intended to solve the harmful wage gaps in society and ensure that everyone can meet equitable standards of living regardless of their wage bracket, with the intent of providing people with a means to avoid poverty and financial discomfort. But why is it gaining so much traction in economic discussions and State discourse over the last five years?
Did we Forget Money Doesn't Grow on Trees?
Well the answer to this question lies in the future, and with some careful and realistic examination of our cultural and economic situations we can see why it is that so many authorities are desperate to enforce U.B.I as the new norm. Firstly lets consider the implications of a government giving out free money to address a wage income disparity, as it may actually have adverse effects as a result of it's action. If everyone in the UK was to receive U.B.I it would mean that the Government would have to borrow from the Central Bank (if it did not use taxpayer money which would dramatically negatively affect our fiscal deficit) a total of £665,000,000,000 billion which would accumulate £9,309,999,999 billion in interest every year at current 10yr Bond Yield rates(1.4%). This amount is absolutely gargantuan and is evidently going to be massively detrimental to a countries finances and wider economy. This would be so because the amount of monetary expansion caused by this credit formation would be far beyond the justified expansion of economic grounds on which the U.B.I is payed out from. In other words the productivity and spending benefits encouraged by this scheme would not outweigh the costs of stimulating this behavior, and would therefore be economically unsustainable. It would be the same for a country in this situation if a person were to borrow £50,000 a year and only make £40,000, eventually they will go bankrupt and the spending of the borrowed money would have not contributed to the bettering of his economic situation, it would have actually reversed it and made them insolvent. In this instance U.B.I would not be financially beneficial to wider society as the inflation caused by the creation of money to accommodate the expense would not be supported by the underlying economy, and would eventually only serve to partially mitigate astronomical living costs much higher than today's while jeopardizing the democracy of the government to the institutions who issue the credit and hence monetary supply, i.e the Central Banks.
Countries Whose Jobs Are Most at Risk From Automation
Apart from the fact that money not created through productivity and economic contribution will become worthless and an inaffordable expense to a country that relegates power to a central Bank, U.B.I could further effect the sustainability of the economy through a diminishing working class. Imagine a future where you can leave school and know that you can make more sitting at home receiving U.B.I than you can working a job at minimum wage, and because most of the minimum wage jobs are all automated anyway it makes sense just to live in this fashion for free! Of course this does not appeal to a wide majority of people who want to attain further in life and discover new truths and ways of exploring what the world has to offer, but we may not have much choice. In this new technocracy that we are developing it is evident that involvement in the real world is not as heavily valued as it used to be and in a future where robots will become equal in capability to humans that we will not value ourselves as highly as we once did. This in my opinion will lead to a future where we as humans do not have to be directly involved in the sustainability of our economy through work and contribution, and this will be enforced by simultaneous existence of virtual reality world spaces and alternate lives that can be lived outside of our physical dimension. This will be incredibly harmful to the human race as a whole and our value to society, and a reason why U.B.I is being so vigorously pursued by nation States everywhere is because world leaders are aware of our prospective obsolescence in the economy due to the automation of jobs and services. While productivity will be sustained and even improved by automation we need to consider the fact that we will not receive the benefit of this efficiency, and we will further retract into virtual existence to escape the voided being without purpose in the real world. Work is not only valuable economically but also personally and provides intrinsic value to life, U.B.I will not only encourage people to transition out of the workforce prematurely but will when automation is comprehensive ( A.I takes your order & drones cook & serve your food) encourage people to become non productive and non contributive members of society who add no value to the overall economy.
In a World Focused on Developing a Fake Reality, Our Value in the Real One Lessens
So in conclusion we can see the intent of U.B.I is not only intended to address a wage gap but is also a means of providing people with a wage when there is no longer any jobs for them left to fulfill in the overall economy. It is a protectionist measure designed to help people keep pace with society when it outgrows their utility and provide them with barely sufficient means to maintain a healthy lifestyle. In the coming years it will prove to be a wage multiplier as people still occupy work and contribute to the economy, but as minimum wage jobs are relegated to more efficient and cheap automation it will remain for many the only source of income. It will prove to be fiscally unsustainable as its provision entails no economic creation from recipients, and will only further debt burdens and inflationary pressures to the point where it will itself not be able to meet the demands of human requirement. Free money is always detrimental to the society that creates and provides it especially when it is not created through actual economic output of the recipients, and it will be a major driving force in the adoption and acceptation of our exclusion from the menial workforce. Many people know that this is the course that it will take us in the future and countries like Switzerland voted 76.9% against U.B.I in 2013. So when it is challenged to be implemented as a measure to address wage gaps and need attainment just think of the erosion of value that this will have on your native currency and economy, and how much more worthless you as a citizen will become to the government and industry who gain no output from your being and categorize you as merely an expense. This is the future of the humanless economy and it is coming, just be aware and recognize the factors of it taking place in society today so that we can ensure our value in society tomorrow.
Let me know what you think of this situation in the comments below and tell me your opinion on whether you would favor Universal Basic Income or not. Also check out my last post :
https://steemit.com/life/@blockchainboom/why-political-correctness-is-fascism-in-disguise