A Silicon Valley entrepreneur says basic income would work

Written on April 24th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

… even if 90% of people smoked weed instead of working – Published on Tech Insider, by Chris Weller, April 19, 2016.

The chief complaint people lodge at universal basic income — a form of income distribution that gives people money to cover basic needs regardless of whether they work or not — is that it’ll make them lazy.

Sam Altman doesn’t buy it.  

On a recent episode of the Freakonomics podcast, entitled “Is the World Ready for a Guaranteed Basic Income?” Altman argued basic income could support huge amounts of productivity loss and still carry the economy on its shoulders.

“Maybe 90% of people will go smoke pot and play video games, but if 10% of the people go create incredible new products and services and new wealth, that’s still a huge net-win,” Altman says. “And the American puritanical ideal that hard work for its own sake is valuable — period — and that you can’t question that, I think that’s just wrong” … //

… But the beauty in that, which Altman hints at, is that there really won’t be any laggards. Nine-tenths of the population won’t suddenly sit around and get high, because the best evidence suggests a financial safety net actually encourages people to work harder.

Even in the worst-case scenario basic income still wins.

(full text, related links).

Related Link:

Other Links:

Standing Up to Verizon’s War on Unions, on The Bullet, Socialist Project’s E-Bulletin No. 1250, April 22, 2016;

Growing and Using Chia Sprouts, on Gesundheit Santé Health, April 23, 2016;

Attacking Beer Purity: The Twilight of Germany’s Reinheitsgebot, on Spiegel Online International, by Nils Klawitter, April 21, 2016 (Photo Gallery): Germany’s beer purity law celebrates its 500th birthday this weekend. The strict brewing rules are world-famous, but they also limit experimentation. With a rise of craft brewers and the loss of key legal battles, does the proud tradition have a future?

Machines that think — and can do your job, on Times Union/Blog, by Jay Jochnowitz, April 19, 2016;

Le danger vient de la finance officielle et non de celle de l’ombre, dans Le Temps.ch, April 19, 2016;

#NuitDebout: Reviens Finkie, dans l’Obs, par Daniel Schneidermann, le 19 avril 2016: la poignée de petits génies qui ont chassé Finkielkraut de la place de la République ont fait davantage de mal à Nuit debout, qu’à l’académicien;

Policymakers must look for alternatives to the minimum wage, on Collegiate Times, by Gautam Rao, April 18, 2016;

Suisse: Dites-nous ce que vous comptez glisser dans l’urne, dans Le Matin, le 18 avril 2016;

City Committee to Discuss Final Report from Mayor’s Advisory Panel on Poverty, on Talk Radio AM640, by Natalie Lovie, April 18;

The solution to (nearly) everything, working less, on The Guardian, by Rutger Bregman, April 18;

A quoi ça sert de parler quand on n’a rien à dire? dans Médiapart.fr, par NOËL MAMÈRE, le 18 avril 2016;

Oliver Kalkofe klartext zu Merkel/Erdogan und Böhmermanns Schmähgedicht, 10.13 min, uploaded by uncutnews.ch, April 15, 2016 … bei Maybrit Illner vom 15.April 2016;

CANADA: Fight for $15 and Fairness, on Global Labour Research Centre GLRC, by David Bush & Rawan Abdelbaki, April 15, 2016
… a national Day of Action in Canada, with workers taking to the streets to demand a $15 minimum wage …;

spoken in english, translated in german:
Machtgier USA – Taktik, Strategie, Kalkül – George Friedman, STRATFOR, 11.09 min, uploaded by uncutnews.ch, March 17, 2015 … ein kleiner Einblick wie das US-Imperium arbeitet um seine Macht zu erhalten oder auszubauen …;

… and this – prepare to survive the next total crash:

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