Those advocating the retraining of workers tend to believe that AI will slowly shift what skills are in demand, but if workers can adapt their abilities and training, then there will be no decrease in the need for labor. Those advocates of reducing work hours believe that AI will reduce the demand for human labor and feel that this impact could be

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In observing Silicon Valley’s surge in interest around UBI, I believe some of that advocacy has emerged from a place of true and genuine concern for those who will be displaced by new technologies. But I worry that there’s also a more self-interested component: Silicon Valley entrepreneurs know that their billions in riches and their role in instig

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The inability to rise, or even to maintain middle-class status, has sparked calls for a universal basic income, a policy embraced by many in the clerisy and throughout the oligarchy. A universal basic income would stand as what Karl Marx called “the proletarian alms bag,” keeping the masses from destitution without assisting them to move up, start ... See more

Yang isn’t proposing a tax on automation (yet), but he needs to stop using fear of automation as a way to sell UBI. Besides the fact that the evidence is against it and it encourages bad policies, the “rise of the robots” narrative calls for a UBI that’s much bigger than anything Yang — or anyone — can possibly muster. If automation makes humans ob... See more