George Dvorsky explains How Universal Basic Income Will Save Us From the Robot Uprising in response to predictions that robots, artificial intelligence and other types of technology will eliminate many of the jobs currently held by human beings. The concept is commonly referred to as “technological unemployment.” In his article, published by io9, Dvorsky discusses the necessity of a “basic income guarantee” (BIG) as a way to combat the expected rise in unemployment. BIG, in its most basic form, is based on the notion that “[e]veryone in society receives a single basic income to provide for comfortable living whether they choose to work or not,” states Dvorsky. The idea is not new. Back in 1918 philosopher Bertrand Russell in Roads to Freedom¹ recommended BIG as a means to reduce the average workday and full-time employment. Quoting Trinity College’s James Hughes, “[w]e are now entering the beginning of an era in which technology has started to destroy employment faster than it creates it.” While BIG is big,² there may be other options³ if and when machines truly take over. Dvorsky references Law Professors Gary Marchant, Yvonne Stevens and businessman, James Hennessy (also a member of the ASU Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law Center for Law, Science & Innovation‘s Advisory Board) who consider the issue of technological unemployment and offer related solutions in their article, Technology, Unemployment & Policy Options: Navigating the Transition to a Better World, published by the Journal of Evolution and Technology (24-1 – Feb. 2014).
¹Russell, B. 1918. Roads to Freedom. Socialism, Anarchism and Syndicalism, London: Unwin Books, pp. 80-81 and 127.
²One of the world’s most outspoken advocates of a basic income system is Belgian philosopher and political economist Philippe van Parijs. Other advocates include feminist economist Ailsa McKay, German drugstore magnate Götz Werner, Dutch political activist Saar Boerlage,French social theorist André Gorz,American political philosopher Michael Hardt and Italian Marxist sociologist Antonio Negri, American libertarian political scientist Charles Murray New Zealand economist Gareth Morgan, Finnish politician Osmo Soininvaara, University of London economist Guy Standing, Brazilian politician and economist Eduardo Suplicyand Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek. (source: Wikipedia).
³ See also, Brynjolfson, E., and A. McAfee. 2011. Race Against the Machine. Lexington, MA: Digital Frontier Press; and Ford, M. 2009. The Lights in the Tunnel. Lexington, KY: Acculant Publishing.