Universal basic income is the wrong answer for workers hurt by a changing job market

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OPINION: Universal basic income is the wrong answer, Jamie Merisotis writes. Instead, we should make sure people have meaning and purpose from work.

Federal stimulus checks that helped millions of Americans weather the initial months of the COVID-19 crisis have resurfaced calls for adopting universal basic income.

Our tax dollars would be better spent better readying American adults for human work of the future as automation, artificial intelligence, robots, and other smart machines take a larger role in the American workplace. People need incomes to support their families, sure. But work offers something they consistently say is more important—meaning, dignity, and a sense of larger purpose.

Pandemic aside, support for universal basic income has largely been based on the idea that technology and AI will make millions of jobs disappear and that work itself will eventually become obsolete for many. This means investing in a comprehensive public system for continuous learning that everyone will need—throughout their careers—to stay nimble, adaptable, and employable. We can no longer look at “education” and “training” as separate things offered in discrete systems. Rather, we need one system in which all learning counts, whether obtained in the classroom, on the job, in the military or elsewhere.

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UBI doesn't say not to work. UBI says poverty line living wage. If someone wants more, w/o any savings, they have to work. Also, ppl would do better w/ basic shelter - a place to live, food stamps, and hygene competing for a min wage job than ppl living on the streets imo.

Even the board game Monopoly gives every player $200 bucks each time they pass Go, as a way to seed their participation in a system tilted ultimately to leave one with all the wealth and the rest bankrupt.

People don’t derive meaning and purpose from low paying menial jobs or even the high paying ones. They derive meaning and purpose from living a full filling life where they can persue their interests while enjoying the security and peace of mind that comes with a living wage.

Same old boring protestant values 🤦

Hey AndrewYang what do you think about this?

Sweet lady Bitcoin! She is kill-ing-it! I love the Bitcoin supporters too. 'Sophisticated intellectuals' and 'Futurists' were two of my favorite descriptions! Let's go BITCOIN! 🔥

That is such bs

Compensate people fairly with a living wage then.

Maybe Jamie Merisotis should work on banning trust funds

what if the better you did at your job the less taxes you paid

So he supports massively expanding spending on education, athletics, arts, etc? I'm not sure what the plan is when AI and robots displace everyone except administrators.

I don't think a thousand bucks (or whatever minimal income) would make me lazy and not look for work.

UBI is not enough to live on. It's meant to lift people out of poverty.

Thats so true. They just want to turn people into parasites and rule themselves everything else

BS!

Dgtjg

Exactly! That’s why you vote Republican!

I dont think Berkshire Apple and other biggies have enough free cash to hold market up of we get the socialist stooges

Hello, the 1950's called and they want their economic philosophies back!

I would argue that UBI leads to meaningful work. Often ppl work jobs they hate for a paycheck. UBI allows them to work on passions not paychecks.

Most people don’t have meaning and purpose from work now

Let me call up my mortgage lender and make sure they accept meaning and purpose first.

Meaningful work maybe hard to comeby in a pandemic

An honorable infusion of cash is urgently needed. NOW.

Well that’s a shitty opinion

People don’t like their jobs. There is no meaning & purpose from work. These people need better hobbies and a exercise routine.

People should have meaning and purpose in life. Work is what a person does to hopefully be able to finance that. For many people work currently fails to provide this.

With automation leading the way and AI tech progressing, jobs will be limited and unnecessary. The AI robots have beaten Doctors in Diagnosis and surgery... numerous times. It's only a matter of time before humans become unnecessary and redundant.

Universal employment then must be the law of the land.

Drivel

No, people should have a universal basic income.

Incorrect.

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