Good stuff, thanks.First, there will clearly continue to be significant short-term pain as we (ever so slowly) come to grips with the fact that millions of people are simply no longer needed at their jobs due to advances in technology. Their skills are literally becoming obsolete, more so by the day, and many of the them might very well never return to the income and productivity levels of their past. So it's incumbent on us to (a) recognize this cold fact, and (b) consciously choose to either help them in some way or let them founder and rot.
I totally agree. This is an oncoming crisis and it seems few are even thinking about it.
Second, my fear is that this process will take far longer than it has to, because it will inevitably become hyper-politicized like everything else - meaning over-simplified, dumbed down and bumper-stickerized by both political ends. The damage done while this process plays out will almost certainly be incalculable. Some out-of-the-box thinking and true intellectual curiosity are badly needed here, and clearly both are in terribly short supply in contemporary American politics.
Yes, we simply MUST get back to the old paradigm of the Early Enlightenment Classic Liberal and Classic Conservative (Burke Conservative) engaging in open discussion and coming to resolutions that identify the interests of all parties and respect them. Our current polarized paradigm of the far right vrs the far left is taking us into a current heading to disaster as we cannot agree to let anyone take the rudder.
Edmund Burke was liberal enough in his day to support the American Revolution and yet conservative enough to oppose the French Revolution which he correctly identified as very different in essence and axioms. We need more of his kind of conservative, and more of the Jeffersonian kind of liberal.
Third, finally, the good side: Isn't technology doing precisely what we have always wanted, bringing down costs, increasing productivity and making lives easier for end users? This could translate, if we let it, if we use our heads, into an entirely new way of looking at how we work and earn a living. The first thought that comes to mind is a shorter work week, job sharing, and the base income you describe. Imagine technology allowing for a higher standard of living on the low end AND a 20-hour work week.
Again, I totally agree. We have a future Technological Utopia that will give us a life of leisure where people can make most of what they need and can barter for most of the rest with others who also make things. What cash will be needed could be obtained from the occasional part time job.
The challenge is getting us all from the present situation where so many of us depend on having a job and career for peace of mind, to the Utopia where this wont be necessary and not have an intervening civil war.
We could move towards a Jetsons-like future if we could just get along like adults.
.
Well some of us will see it, but just how many of us?
The more the merrier I say.
Regarding going back to "the old paradigm of the Early Enlightenment Classic Liberal and Classic Conservative (Burke Conservative) engaging in open discussion and coming to resolutions that identify the interests of all parties and respect them", well, I think we're significantly closer to falling apart, literally, than we are to returning to that. Sadly.
Meanwhile, the days and years go by, and we're not addressing your OP.
.