Shangra Lai is near!

The best of our world's future Shangra Lai is near, when robotics and computerized technology will replace most human work, and unchain us all from the imprisonment of work---replacing what we have to do with what we want to do.   

Paid work is a recent phenomenon in human history only arising in the last 200-300 years, while unpaid slavery started in our earliest civilizations and co-exists with paid work in some societies even today.  Before work was paid, it was mostly individual or group subsistence in a sharing society. 

The challenge in the new future will be for humanity to adjust to productive use of leisure time,  

I do believe that without human jobs, a fairer sharing of economic wealth will result through guaranteed income plans which will necessarily arise to keep the economy afloat.  This will result in a greater equity and higher living standards for all and poverty, greed, crime, war, disease, etc. all will be eliminated...all part of our future "civilized" Shangra Lai.

As a transition to a jobless world, I believe that the work week, which hasn't been adjusted downward in 60 years from 40 hours per week despite the arrival of computerized technology and robotics, should be reduced to a level, perhaps full time work of 20 hours per week, to reduce growing unemployment levels and to allow all to job-share and profit from the new technology as well as to provide all learning opportunity to adjust to more leisure time.  Also the increased productivity of the computer age should allow pay to be tied to productivity rather than hours worked.

I am pleased that Elon Musk has recently stated that he too agrees that some form of guaranteed income is inevitable as technology steals most jobs.  

Musk states he is not sure of funding mechanisms for the universal guaranteed income plans but this is a topic I have given thought to, and a post on this site of my thoughts and ideas on the topic is being prepared for an upcoming posting.

Ontario proposes major test of guaranteed minimal annual income plan

Ontario is poised to become ground zero for what may be the largest pilot project yet to test the notion of a basic income in North America.

In a discussion paper released Thursday, Ontario’s special adviser on basic income suggests topping up incomes of the working poor and replacing the province’s meagre and rule-bound social assistance program with a monthly payment of at least $1,320 for a single person, or about 75 per cent of the poverty line.

I see this as a trial study of economic systems that will be forced to emerge widely in the near future to supply consumption to keep economies afloat as most workers are replaced by robotics and other computerized technology.

"Should the government pay to keep you alive?"

An interesting debate--"Should the government pay to keep you alive?" While your immediate answer may be, "Hell No! People have to get off their asses and look after themselves!"---this traditional attitude is being increasingly challenged by thinkers on both the left and right extremes of the political spectrum as the world becomes increasingly dependent on smart machines rather than human labour to do most of the work. This article will challenge your perspective about the validity of your long held views as we are propelled into the new world! Get ready to "TAKE OFF!"

Ontario Liberals to Test Minimum Guaranteed Income Plan

As we rapidly lose work worldwide as technology steals most jobs, policy makers must devise ways of supporting the many jobless citizens and Ontario is planning to "test-drive" a minimum guaranteed income plan.  This is a very positive move as the first stage of the transition to the upcoming future of few jobs.  In past experiments, partly with the Mincom Plan in Dauphin Manitoba and others in the world, it has been found to be cheaper and more effective and efficient to replace the many various welfare and other social support programs with the one program guaranteeing a minimum income for all.

People Stuck In the Past Threaten Our Future

The following comment was written by an an individual, a far right leaning conservative too caught up in the narrow dogma of traditional conservatism, an individual who obviously looks backward in trying to preserve the world as it was rather than adapting to what it will be.

"Socialism is the greatest threat to our nation, our freedoms, and our democratic institutions. It must be fought at all levels, and those who show support for such a totalitarian means of governance should be driven to the margins of our society. No less than this will save our country from the tyranny of collectivist ideology."

I responded—

"What a bunch of drivel Dean. The real threats to the nation are joblessness, inequality, greed, lack of opportunity, corporate fraud, concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, unfair employment practices (35% of Canadian workforce employed in part time, contract, and casual employment cutting 35% of workers out of the consumption of big ticket items thus adversely affecting the economy)...and the problem is getting worse as technology and robotics steals more---and eventually all jobs.

When few work, we'll have to pay people without jobs just to keep up consumption to keep the economy afloat.  Without consumption, the entire economy would go belly-up!

The future is coming fast---and the new times and new conditions will require new thinking and new answers---and the societies stuck with old ideas that fail to transition to the new world will be doomed.

Watch the "present" of auto production and try to find the workers making cars these days!  I'm trying to figure out, with this reality, how to make sense of the neo-con statement that wants to preserve a past that no longer exists...LOL!

Robots Make Cars

Today's car manufacturing is done in large part by robots. Check out the amazingly futuristic process.

CHANNEL.NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM

A Model European Society for North America to Emulate

 “Where to Invade Next" is an eye-opening Michael Moore social commentary documentary available on Netflix. 

Moore travels to many forward thinking progressive European countries to find fantastic social ideas about running a great country...and discovers all the great things are originally American ideas not currently practised there because America is a place that presently structures with "the me" in mind while the forward thinking societies structure everything with "the we" in mind.  

This film reveals what can and is being done in progressive and caring societies…and probably foretells the future “Shangri-La” world when most work is done by technology requiring little human labour.

A sample of great ideas being practised are free university education, corporate boards require composition of 50% workers, prisons with unarmed guards rehabilitative rather than punitive, strong sense of female equality, short work days, universal health care, generous social services like paid maternity leave for child daycare, generous pay, working conditions, and holidays, etc.   In Germany, the company even funds worker’s honeymoons.

Workers are treated generously as equals with respect and dignity---rather than slave-like peons as in America.

A story well-told by Michael Moore….but something greedy North American employers in the world’s wealthiest economy say they can’t afford!

This is truly a work world of the future....today!

Received this letter from a reader--Ed G

While politicians are beating their gums over the current stagflation and a 7 - 12 percent unemployment number, humanities’ successes and the accompanying problems they brought are going unnoticed.

The First Industrial Revolution (1840 – 1870) was about water and steam power, machine tools factories and textile manufacturing and the urbanization of workers.  The Second Revolution was the technological and took place at the end of the 19th century and the beginnings of the 20th. It brought in electricity, the production line, railroads and gas, water and sewer lines to serve the urbanized workers.  The Third Revolution, now drawing to a close brought humanity computers, cybernetics, robotics, 3D print manufacturing and a massive shift from production of needs to the production of wants and at the same time a move of workers to the service industries.  We now seem to be on the cusp of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the rewards and challenges it will bring.

With the problems of extraction of natural resources and the manufacturing of needs solved and on the decline, I expect, with others, that there will be an ‘unemployment’ rate of near 30 percent.  At the same time a massive increase in the ‘social worker’ sector to ‘police’ the massive numbers of recipients will be needed.  On of the basic objectives of any ruler is to settle the people’. That settlement cannot take place if the people are not fed, housed, and clothed.  However, there is a solution on the horizon.

Much attention has been paid to the problem of poverty, which has remained unsolved.  The reason it has remained unsolved is that poverty is relative and cannot be solved.  If the word is changed to privation, the insufficiency of food, shelter and clothing, it becomes definable and therefore solvable.  It is well known that the welfare systems in place are to address the problems introduced when capitalism emancipated slaves from slavery to wage slavery and manipulated workers by managing wages.  The solution being studied and on the verge of implementation in many countries is the provision of a Basic Income.  That idea is as old as the writings of the revolutionary Tom Paine (1737 –1809). 

Canada was a leader when it experimented by testing the in Dauphin Manitoba in 1974 - 1979.  More youth finished high school, teen pregnancies were reduced, hospital admissions were lowered, especially for mental heath.  It became a ‘town without poverty”

Leaders in all political parties support the idea and it is part of the Green party Platform

Massive material is available with the Google Search Engine.  Studies have proven that some $40 billions in annual budgetary savings could be realised.

On December 28 2015 the Toronto Star published an item by Robin V. Sears, a principal at Earnscliffe and a Broadbent Institute.  The Head was “Three big tests for the new Prime Minister.”  The three items were — “real carbon roll¬back, genuine democratic reform, and transforma¬tion in the lives of Canada's aboriginal citizens..”

A fourth needs to be added and substantiation made for it to be included.  That fourth, to address the problems of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is the implementation of a Basic Income.

And So I Responded!!!

All this is "old hat" for me Ed as i've been writing on this topic since 2008 on my blog www.fairjobs.ca and in response to a naive Toronto Star columnist 4 or 5 years ago, had a 3 or 4 column wide rebuttle “letter to the editor” published as the lead letter heading all of the single column letters.

My approach to the problem of the disappearance of work due to robotics and technological innovations is not as bleak as your crime and starvation scenario but rather indicates the need to phase in shorter work weeks with pay tied to machinery productivity rather than hours worked as we transition to a future of little work.  This would avoid revolutions seen in China and The Middle East and provide more (reduced hours with pay tied to company profits/productivity) jobs opportunity and the resultant available consumption capital necessary in the economy to keep the economy afloat.

Interestingly, the public support in America for Presidential Nominee Candidates like Donald (“We’re Gonna Make America Great Again”) Trump and Bernie (“More Fairness and Opportunity for the Working Class”) Sanders are strong signals of widespread public dissatisfaction with the American System that only works for a few and, without change, is a pre-cursor to future revolution.

I have also written about the Dauphin Manitoba Guaranteed Income experiments and see this distribution of wealth as necessary and a positive product of robotics in freeing people to do things they want to do (think, philosophize, write blogs, volunteer, travel, take up new hobbies like art, music, etc.) rather than things they have to do (tedious, boring, and repetitious work).  The working classes will get to live the life of the capitalist classes---sit on their asses and let the money flow in to support a good life style.  Even without the need to work, few people will be idle.  Magically, activity always more than fills idle time!  Just ask any retiree!

This problem of reducing work is not new to the world.  Before the industrial revolution of the mid 1800's, every man, woman, and child worked 100 hours per week in physical hand labour.  Mechanization of production allowed for increased efficiency of production and decreased hours of work so, over many years, the full work day became defined as 8 hour days that got enshrined in laws like Ontario's Employment Standards Act defining the work week as 40 hours for a 5 day work week or 48 hours for a 6 day work week.

The Problems Then?  

• The work week has not been redefined for over 60 years despite computers, technological innovation, and robotics which have freed humans from being tied to the job.  We now simply have to redefine the work week as we reduce hours of work (job share) with pay tied to productivity rather than hours worked as we transition to the impending future of the need for little human work, and

• We need to figure out ways to fairly divide the fruits of the economy to provide everyone with a "fair share" of the economic pie to allow for the necessary and growing consumption to keep the national and world economies growing and flourishing, where technology frees humans from the bondage of work but continues to provide a growing income tied to growing national economic productivity to feed the consumption necessary for continued economic growth.

There is nothing bleak about the future.  The "crisis" felt by the Luddites who destroyed the early machines taking their jobs is now being felt by many---but those early machines eased all the back breaking labour and brought the world the highest standards of living ever known to man---and this history of progress will be repeated!