I’ve been reading a book on Modern Monetary Theory. UBI hasn’t been mentioned yet but the book does dive into government work programs (think CCC of the 1930s). The general idea, the government would hire unemployed during recessions/depressions. People that go on unemployment tend to take longer to get hired again. Thus, the government would set the minimum wage and keep people from failing. I like it so long as unemployment benefits disappear. At least with government work, people can help the community out. We have to be careful with government subsidizing itself (USPS, Amtrak). Personally, I’d rather the government focus on infrastructure than Amtrak and USPS.
As for robots and AI taking over jobs, this has been happening at an ever faster rate. The tipping point will be when you can get a driverless taxi. This is actually one of the reasons Tesla’s stock is bubble like. IF they pull it off, people can buy a Tesla that will pay for itself by being a ride share car. This would remove 300-500k jobs from the US economy and likely increase the number of cars of the road. Who is impacted: public transportation, taxis, ride share drivers, …
I can’t believe they haven’t started with crew less ships. Instead of having 1 ship that is MASSIVE with 30-40 crew, build 3-4 smaller ships with no crews, have a port captain board the ship as it nears port otherwise lock the vessel and use sat based systems to control it. I’d be willing to bet the loss of ships would be less costly than the loss of life (pirates, storms…) AND the time from build to buy is likely weeks to months less.
Airplanes are already semi-automated with the first FAA approved self landing plane approved. Yes, the captain has a medical and someone can click a button to have the plane land at the nearest airport.
Those three examples are also why Space is the single most important place to control! SpaceX has launched 1100 Starlink sats. Those sats will help deliver internet to ships, planes, cars in the very near future at a cost that is much less than the current providers. At worst, it is the redundancy needed for ships and planes.
This is why I said a few months back, the US economy is moving towards a service based economy vs. manufacturing. Lawyers, Doctors, Nurses, Tradesmen, Fitness, Hospitality, IT,… That isn’t to say we won’t make good things: it is to say that those manufacturing jobs will truly be IT jobs to manage robots, AI… China’s days are numbered as AI and robotics catch up with their child and cheap labor. At some point, it will be cheaper and faster to make things with robots here than import from Asia. This will help deduce our cost of living and could potentially increase our exports.