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and UBI is an excuse to write off the bottom half the population.

All 3 are popular with the HN crowd. Not surprising.

The argument for UBI is that society is going to write off the bottom half of the population anyway, so something is better than nothing.

The counterargument is we could just not write them off.

And how do you propose we do that?

We will, though. Globalization and automation aren't going to stop, and we're going to end up with an entire class of people rendered surplus to requirements whose labor value in the marketplace will be zero or well below subsistence levels.

Trump's populist promises to keep the coal mines open and auto factories rolling and dial the American economy back to the 1950s won't work, the world has moved on. Reeducation and retraining won't work at scale, especially not in the US where education means an unpayable private debt in many cases.

So if not UBI, then what?

First it'll be the bottom half, then the bottom two-thirds, then the bottom 90%. Automation isn't going to stop at manufacturing, truckers, and retail workers: it'll hit radiologists, accountants, lawyers, etc eventually.

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