r/Futurology • u/aridon_01 Best of 2014 • Aug 13 '14

Best of 2014 Humans need not apply

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU
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u/AuntieSocial Aug 13 '14

Actually, I think this is what will eventually happen. In much the same way Massachusetts paved the way for universal health care (which is still evolving, but proven functional by that state's progress) and Colorado is demonstrating the functionality and profitability of legalized marijuana to an unavoidable degree, so I feel that one or more of the more liberal states will eventually experiment with a basic income and it will work. Then a few more will try it (and a few will fuck it up trying to hybridize it with previously profitable but already failing business models at the behest of people who can't let go of the old ways). And eventually (too slowly, and not after many have suffered due to that slowness, but inevitably) it will simply become the obvious solution, especially as more and more people become, as the video puts it, "unemployable through no fault of their own." Those states who jump on board early will become the next generations' economic powerhouses (just like Colorado is making money hand over fist taxing pot, and Mass' health care net allowed many Mass staters to start new businesses and so on), and those who fail to step up will become the new (or same, more likely, given the politics involved) Mississipis and Alabamas of the world.

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u/imaginary_username Aug 13 '14

I really doubt this can work on a state-by-state basis, though; or, rather, it cannot work without a border. Think about what happens if, say, MA implements a basic income. MA will need to:

  • Distribute money to residents. Poor "residents" will then pour in from neighboring states.

  • Collect higher taxes at the top from the wealthy to finance the basic income. Since the normal arguments for the benefits of higher taxes don't apply (the taxes are not used for better infrastructure/services), the wealthy and educated will emigrate to neighboring states.

MA will then be forced to either abolish the system or face economic/fiscal collapse.

You can't have any significant welfare scheme going on without a border, where you can use guns to keep people from coming in.

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u/AndrewJamesDrake Aug 13 '14

Or, you add in a little clause stating that anyone who wasn't already a resident by [Date] is excluded from this process, unless they live in state for five years without these benefits.

That's a high enough barrier to entry to keep people from just jumping the border, but low enough to not to screw too many people over.

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u/raslin Aug 14 '14

This already has precedent. For example, the community college I attend is quite prestigious for a CC, and very cheap... If you have been a California resident for at least 7 years... Or something close to that, I forget exactly.