On March 29, 2017, Neil C. Bhavsar and Christianna Reedy write on Futurism:
The consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCooper is predicting that the U.K. will lose 30 percent of its jobs to automation in the next 15 years. Automation is a global issue, and some countries are considering Universal Basic Income as a means of counteracting its associated job loses.
THE ROBOT REVOLUTION
Whether we like it or not, robots are making an impact in the job market. Experts predict that almost a million jobs will be replaced by robots in 2030, while companies like apple are justifying such predictions. This may also be a boon to governments that wish to cut costs, and almost 80 percent of administrative work will likely be automated in the course of the next 15 years.
We’re expected to see changes in sales, customer service, transportation, shipping and logistics, healthcare, and legal paraprofessionals. The consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCooper (PWC) took a look at the future of one of the world’s super-powers — the U.K.
In a few years even a developed country like Britain might lose a significant portion of its work force — about 30 percent — to automation, leaving 10 million workers without a job. Breaking the numbers down in terms of the sexes, this means that 35 percent of jobs currently held by men are at risk. Women are expected to fare slightly better, with only 26 percent of jobs currently held by women expected to be replaced by robots. While sectors such as wholesale and administrative work are most likely to get the replacement, the health care and social work industries might keep the automation at bay for now.
PWC’s chief economist, John Hawksworth, asserted in a PWC press release that this is because “manual and routine tasks are more susceptible to automation, while social skills are relatively less automatable.” In light of this prediction, the PWC’s team does offer several solutions, including increasing education, spreading potential gains from automation, and considering a form of Universal Basic Income (UBI).
HOW A SOCIETY WITHOUT JOBS COULD WORK
A UBI is gaining traction around the world as potential solution to global automation. While certain entrepreneurs dislike the notion or feel that we aren’t ready for it yet, countries like Finland, Canada, and even cities in the U.S. are experimenting with the system.
A UBI guarantees every citizen a monthly income regardless of any additional salaries they may accrue. While some urge for a complete replacement of all social programs with UBI, others suggest just a partial consolidation. In order to pay for the program as a whole in the U.S., experts suggest possibly eliminating tax cuts that represent upwards of $540 billion for the wealthy or reducing the $853 billion budget on defense.
Will UBI provide as sustainable solution to living in an automated world? We might just have to wait 15 years to find out.
https://futurism.com/nation-expected-to-lose-30-of-jobs-to-automation-in-15-years/
News From The Center for Economic and Social Justice (www.cesj.org) Network:
There has been a lot of noise circulating about the basic income plan. It sounds very nice to say that everyone should have enough to live on as a fundamental human right. The problem is, however, that people who produce what others consume without getting anything in return tend to get resentful. This sets up an “us v. them” mentality, and demands that all those people not working be punished or eliminated. As Abraham Lincoln noted in his debates with Stephen Douglas, it’s against nature for some to work and others to benefit: “It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity, and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, ‘You toil and work and earn bread, and I’ll eat it.’ No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.” As the first principle of economics and Say’s Law of Markets make clear, no one can consume what has not been produced . . . and anyone who consumes without producing can only get it from those who produce.
And yes, in the future, the vast majority will have zero economic value. And yet there are those who would allow a political elite to dictate over you and be owned by them instead of owning yourself and self-sufficient. See http://www.foreconomicjustice.org/?p=16392. The real solution is to empower EVERY child, woman and man to contribute productively to the society’s economy and build a future economy applying technology and responsible renewal growth by acquiring and accumulating the wealth-creating, income-producing capital assets of the future. This can be accomplished without the requirement of past savings or pledging equity to banks as collateral to secure capital credit loans, repayable out of the future earnings of the investments. Instead access to capital credit can be collateralized with capital credit insurance and reinsurance on a financially feasible basis using a tax deferred program permitting an accumulation to a level capital self-sufficiency.
Support Monetary Justice at http://capitalhomestead.org/page/monetary-justice.
Support the enactment of the Capital Homestead Act (aka Economic Democracy Act) at http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/, http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/capital-homestead-act-a-plan-for-getting-ownership-income-and-power-to-every-citizen/, http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/capital-homestead-act-summary/ and http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/ch-vehicles/.
