That’s what the Rs have wanted all along.
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I know people are saying this but with every technology comes new jobs. But who knows, maybe this time it will be different.
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Nobody wants 50% of the people out of work and a collapse of the Social Safety net. Well almost nobody. It doesn’t take much to imagine what would happen next.
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I am confident that tax cuts and subsidies for “JCs” will always exceed spending cuts.
Steve
Can’t robots contribute to social security? Seriously. Their labor will increase profits for corporations, which should be taxed for social security.
If money doesn’t come from human labor, it’s coming from somewhere else. It doesn’t just disappear. Tax it for the greater good.
We’re dancing around the idea of taxing wealth.
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Increase the death tax on Proles? I don’t think they have enough loot to do that. The “JCs” will never be “burdened” with a tax increase.
Steve
Steve with that type of attitude nobody would have even left the Cave. The catalyst for change is within everyone.
ah- HAH! Enter “Plan Steve to save Social Security”, by imposing draconian proof of citizenship to receive benefits. Go over every naturalization document with a fine tooth comb for the tiniest discrepancy. Find a discrepancy, no matter how minor or inconsequential, cut off benefits, and demand repayment, with interest, of every nickle “fraudulently” received by he person.
Steve
Time to go for a walk Steve. 
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I have held, for some time, that Shiny-land has been going retrograde for a good forty years. Why not reach the state some South American cities are known for, with a stratospheric Gini coefficient, and cities surrounded by massive shantytowns.
Steve
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Why do you think I have been compiling my “papers”, for several years now?
Steve
Probably for the same reason people have been buying bomb shelters and hording guns and ammo. My Uncle just passed away with a safe full of guns and never was able to use them. What a pity. All that money tied up in guns and Ammo.
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Some of us enjoyed history classes in school. Some of us studies situations where “papers” could do what no amount of guns and ammo could ever do.
Steve
Your papers are only as good as you put it "The JC’s " say they are.
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There is no way the JC’s bringing in robots to replace humans will agree to that. This is also the fundamental flaw with UBI.
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Yes, enforcement and fairness would ruin UBI. And it would stigmatize recipients, like welfare, and all but codify income inequality. Besides, I’d like to retain the freedom for how, whether, and where I make an income.
I don’t see UBI working, or even desirable.
We have something that already works; taxation.
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Autonomous robots will eventually work for the cost of energy + some nominal additional factor for repair/replacement parts.
I could see a great Machiavellian scheme where robot work is taxed at 15% (higher than FISA expenses today), but the incremental wage income revenue from workers shrinks over time to a trival non-zero total.
On the other hand, maybe billions of “robots” taxed at 15% and working for a KwH++ nominal fee would still be some revenue.
This is true. But having papers is better than not having papers.
Steve
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