Technology, Automation, Loss of Jobs and Universal Basic Income
With the rise of automation in the world, there will be an increase in things that look like science fiction (Sci-fi) and at this point, what will humans do? The industrial revolution brought drastic change to human lives while displacing a lot of jobs at that time but scientist have predicted that technology might reach singularity in the next 10 years since the rate of technological advancement has been doubling in last 10 years. Just like the industrial revolution, there is going to be a new revolution and that is going to be Automation (the machine revolution).
It is no doubt that a lot of restaurants, supermarket chains and drivers are already losing their jobs to automation, companies like Amazon, Tesla and BMW are working round the clock on improving AI machine learning and deep learning it looks more realistic that by 2030, a lot of people would have lost their jobs.
What can be done?
A lot of people say that AI will create other types of jobs but the truth is will it be able to give jobs to the same number of people that will be displaces? On possible solution is Universal Basic Income (UBI).
Universal Basic Income
American Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang has based most of his campaign on Universal Basic Income and he is not the first person to talk about this, even in the 16th century, philosophers wrote about a time when citizens will be relieved of carrying the burden of worrying for their basic needs. Also Thomas Paine, a philosopher also wrote about this in the 1797.
This is an income for citizens of a country because they are alive and do not have jobs, so they can be able to attend to basic living needs such as food, shelter and clothing.
In the past, Cinemas were big things and were able to employ a lot of staffs but with the advent of the internet and Video service providers like Netflix, people prefer to watch the movie they want and when they want it with their loved ones. The same thing applies to supermarkets and restaurants, automated services, check in and out are possible. This is just the beginning as automation will take away a lot of jobs in different segments as machines and robots are cheap to maintain, fast, accurate and safe cost. Automation will affect positions ranging from machine operators and assemblers, Repetitive elementary jobs, Craft. Service and sales workers, Agricultural farmers, lawyers, doctors, stock brokers and many more. The fact remains that as much as technology keeps advancing, we will need less humans to do jobs.
Humans can only work 8-10 hours daily but robots and automated machines can work as long as 24 hours with no need to rest except there is a technical problem and this does UBI come in. People will be left with no jobs while companies will improve revenues as automation will make work faster, easier and more accurate.
Will this Affect the Economy?
Having AI and robots taking away jobs and leaving people without money for their basic needs could cripple the economy but with the Universal Basic Income, people will be able to spend on basic needs while the company making revenues using automation are taxed more. Tech giants like Mark Zuckerbergw and Elon Musk have been pushing for universal basic income.