On Wed, 1 Feb 2017 12:30:27 -0500, burfordTjustice
wrote:

Paris (AFP) - It is a utopian idea, literally, but is enjoying a renaissance as politicians and policy wonks grapple with technology-driven changes that could redefine our very understanding of work.

If robots and machine intelligence threaten to render many white-collar jobs obsolete, then what will people do for money?

Enter the concept of a "universal basic income", a flat sum paid to all regardless of your existing wealth or ability to work. It is one of the rare ideas that has support from both the libertarian right -- which favours tearing up the welfare state -- and the left wing.

In France, Benoit Hamon has emerged as the surprise Socialist candidate for April's presidential election first round, on a radical programme that includes such an income -- to be funded in part by a new tax on industrial robots.

National or local governments in other countries such as Finland, the Netherlands, Canada, Scotland and Brazil are already evaluating how such a revenue might work in practice.

Finland is furthest down the road. On January 1 it started a two-year trial to give 2,000 unemployed Finns a monthly unconditional payment of 560 euros ($590).

At the least, advocates argue, a basic income could replace the thicket of unemployment benefits currently on offer in many advanced economies. Those can, perversely, discourage people from retraining in new fields or taking on lower paid work that society needs, such as care for the elderly.

- Less is More -

https://www.yahoo.com/news/one-incom...041641247.html

Why would anyone go to work at all if we all make the same?
It certainly takes away the incentive to be more productive. That is
why communism fails every place that tries it.