What do you think?
I think in the face of AI taking over many tasks, we need to rethink about how we frame the future of society. Reframing Universal Basic Income as Automation Compensation means presenting the policy as a way to make up for jobs and income lost due to automation and AI. Instead of viewing UBI as a general welfare payment, it becomes seen as compensation paid to everyone for the value automation creates, supporting those whose work is replaced by machines and helping everyone share in productivity gains. Especially in the US, the average person doesn’t like the idea of someone getting something that they’re personally not receiving. So framing it as a compensation that everyone receives regardless of employment status I think is the only feasible way forward.
I think that if people get to have Universal Basic Income, and society can be arranged to provide it without causing big problems to society, then it doesn’t need to be tied to Automation in any way, and instead can simply be viewed as a core benefit of being a member of society. That seems like a more elegant approach.
People would not want to be told ‘oh, it seems like we are going to scale back automation some, so everyone is going to only get 50% of the UBI they have been receiving previously’.
The idea isn’t the problem, I think it’s the framing. The word “income” is charged, and it’s what people associate with work. The word “compensation” is more fitting because we are being compensated for the fact that work is much more scarce due to increasing automation. It also implies that we are owed, rather than receiving an “income” we didn’t directly work for. No one is going to scale back automation, that’s never how it’s worked.