Getting political again…so beware!

In these modern times, automation and computerization have the capacity to, let’s be frank, decimate many “human” jobs.  I’ve noted before my strong belief that automated vehicles will become the norm in the next few years and that some children living today may never have to learn to drive because it will be unnecessary.

As pleasant as the idea of having a self-driving vehicle is, there is of course a negative downside: Suddenly all jobs involving driving vehicles are in jeopardy.

All of them.

If/when self-driving technology becomes a reality, consider all the changes that will inevitably follow.  For one, I can envision large cities having a fleet of self-driving public use vehicles that anybody can summon and pay for, for much less than a taxi, with an app on their phone.  The vehicle comes to pick you up, takes you to where you want to go, then you’re there doing your thing and when you’re done, you whip out your cellphone and call a driverless car to come pick you up and take you back home.

Now consider who is affected by this.

First, taxi drivers.  Public transport drivers.  Car salesmen/dealerships.  Car companies.  Insurance companies.  Gas/chargin stations.  Mechanics.

Why the last three?

Because if you have an efficient fleet of self-driving cars, you don’t need to have a car yourself.  If you don’t need to have a car, there is less and less need for car dealerships and the employees within.  Also, car companies may downsize to make these public car fleets which, of course, will affect mechanics (no need to take in a car you don’t own to a repair shop), and gas/charging stations (you won’t be needing to do anything with these public cars…that will be taken care of by the fleet operations).  Finally, there is no need for you to bother with a car insurance as, duh, you have no car.

Needless to say, I’ve pointed out a rather HUGE number of jobs people currently have which may, in a matter of a single generation, go away.

Worse, this is but one of the things which may well change thanks to computerization and modern technology.

Which brings us to the topic headlined above: Universal Basic Incomes.

The idea being that people receive a “basic” income which will allow them to live outside of poverty.  This income will, hopefully, allow people impacted by modern technology to be able to live outside of complete poverty.

There are certainly positives to implementing programs like this, some of which are listed here:

Universal Basic Income Pilot Programs

There are, of course, negatives as well.  The idea of “giving” people money, even if it is out of the most basic decency to not allow people to starve, is unnerving to many who espouse capitalistic ideology.

In some ways it lies at the heart of the critiques of communism.  If everyone “shares” all the rewards for communal work, then what’s the incentive to make innovative products?  Indeed, what’s the incentive to do anything great at all?

On the other hand and as mentioned above, there are reasons, especially with today’s job sapping technologies, to consider this more than perhaps it was done before.

After all, do we really want to have a small group of “haves” and a very large group of people who, through no fault of their own, can no longer find a way to support themselves given their skill levels?

It’s a knotty question and I don’t have an answer to it.  However, as an author whose books are primarily in the science fiction field, this intrigues the hell out of me and makes me wonder where our future lies.

Fascinating stuff.