On September 14, 2015, Thom Hartmann writes on The Thom Hartmann Show:
It’s no longer far-fetched to say that soon we will be able to shop, work, travel, and commute, all without interacting with a single person. And, while that may sound appealing to the introverts out there, it’s also the reason that we need a basic minimum income.
All of that automation and self-service means fewer jobs available for American workers, and that means more people will find themselves unemployed.
According to a recent article by Paul Buchheit over at CommonDreams.org, “Today’s tech and telecom companies build products that require less American workers, less middle-income workers, and less workers overall.”
He explained that before long, we may find ourselves competing with robots that don’t complain or ask for higher wages. And, that may leave us, the actual human beings, in need of a steady paycheck.
A basic minimum income is the perfect solution for this dilemma, and it could be paid for with a few simple, corporate reforms.
By instituting a carbon tax on our biggest polluters and a transaction tax on Wall Street, we could cover much of the cost of guaranteeing that everyone has enough money to meet their basic needs. The difference could be covered by making it harder for corporations to skip out on their taxes, and putting more reasonable limitations on corporate patents.
With a few reforms like these we could once again be a nation that values people over profit, and we could prepare ourselves for the future economy. If we don’t, we’re likely to spend the money anyway on the various social programs that we’ll need when more and more Americans find themselves out of work.
A basic minimum income would guarantee that all of our fellow Americans have a basic standard of living, and it would leave us the time to design even better robots.
http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2015/09/are-self-service-checkouts-putting-us-out-work
Thom Hartmann and Paul Buchheit both are dumbfounded by what to do about the reality that tectonic shifts in the technologies of production and global downward pressure on wages is destroying jobs and devaluing the worth of labor. There solution: the State should step in a provide EVERY citizen a Minimum Guaranteed Income. This effectively means tax extract the production of those actually who are productive, whether through their labor or through their productive capital assets, which they OWN.
Wealth distribution assumes wealth creation, and productive capital (i.e., tools, machines, robotics, computerization, technological and systems advances and improved land uses), according to recent studies, accounts for almost 90 percent of productivity growth in the modern world. Thus, balanced growth in a market economy depends on incomes distributed through widespread individual ownership of productive capital, all non-human means of production. Without access to and the means to acquire productive capital, people cannot produce enough to purchase the production of others.
Most people on the planet have no legitimate ownership claim to, and have insufficient means to purchase, what technology’s phenomenal productive capacity can generate. On the other hand, the small minority of people who own and control most of the productive instruments of society end up producing more than they can humanly consume.
Both socialism and capitalism concentrate economic power at the top. It makes little difference that under capitalism the concentration is in private hands and under socialism the concentration is in the hands of the State.
What then would be a workable alternative economic model for moving toward a more free, more just and economically classless society?
The REAL solution is to restructure the underlying system, balancing the demands of participative and distributive justice by lifting institutional barriers that have historically separated owners from non-owners. This involves removing the roadblocks preventing people from participating fully in the economic process as both workers and owners.
The Just Third Way offers a just free market system that economically empowers all individuals and families through the democratization of money and credit for new production. Widespread citizen access to money power would create universal access to direct ownership of wealth-creating and income-producing capital.
Hartmann and Buchheit should support the Agenda of The Just Third Way Movement at http://foreconomicjustice.org/?p=5797, http://www.cesj.org/resources/articles-index/the-just-third-way-basic-principles-of-economic-and-social-justice-by-norman-g-kurland/, http://www.cesj.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/jtw-graphicoverview-2013.pdf and http://www.cesj.org/resources/articles-index/the-just-third-way-a-new-vision-for-providing-hope-justice-and-economic-empowerment/.
