Responding to a recent opinion piece advocating for a guaranteed annual income, Star reader David Gladstone of Toronto has this to offer the crucial role it can play in a world of tremendous change and increasingly precarious employment:
It seems the world is never proactive when it comes to preparing for a disaster, whether it is economic, environmental or societal. We just wait for the “tsunami” to occur and then we spring into action, always too late and largely ineffective.
The timely proactive argument for a basic income is a case in point.
Artificial intelligence has arrived and in the next decade or two will be performing a vast array of jobs that will cause serious social reorganization.
A guaranteed income will provide a basic financial security for everyone, which may allay the fear that the future holds no hope.
The industrialized nations of the world will exploit the many advantages of artificial intelligence, but at the same time those nations will be more secure with a guaranteed income for their citizens. The alternative is a large class of people living in poverty who will, out of desperation, seek economic justice through social upheaval.
It is in the interests of all parties that a guaranteed income be put in place before the full impact of computer generated services and materials flood the market.
Will Canada be proactive and position itself for the 21st century through a guaranteed income? Any bets?
I came across a tech report yesterday that predicted half of the job base today, such as it is, could be lost to AI and robotics within a couple of decades. Just what we needed, another sign of a potentially dystopian future.
ReplyDeleteWithout the right kind of political will, Mound, the future will be grim on many fronts.
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