The Best Alternative to UBI: Capitalist Yeomen
As artificial intelligence improves it could eliminate a lot of jobs therefore leading to massive inequality as the owners of capital would get virtually all of the economic gains.
In order to offset this dystopia some have suggested UBI…
But the first problem with UBI is economic.
Economic growth has declined over the decades due to greater government control…
And so rather than massively growing the pie again by cutting regulations, taxes, bureaucracy, and indoctrination, UBI would theoretically better divide the pie.
Some UBI proponents argue that UBI should only be implemented “instead of” our welfare state and not “in addition to,” but this would only minimize some of the growth constraints and at the end of the day virtually every UBI proponent would support a UBI bill regardless of whether it included spending cuts and so by band-aiding over our underlying limitations it’d only make it easier for the powers-that-be to further consolidate power because we’d be distracted by our “bread and circuses.”
The second problem with UBI is political.
People will vote for evermore UBI therefore turning elections into auctions with other people’s money: “$2000 a month!” “No, $3000!” “Going once, going twice, sold, to the candidate from California!” As UBI increases so will taxes therefore killing more and more small-to-medium-size businesses until eventually all that’s left atop the tide is a massive unaccountable government and a few of its closest corporate friends.
The third problem with UBI is psychological.
People care more about something if they have a lot of power over a small area than a little power over a large area.
With the former, humans become more vigilant, thoughtful, critical, happy, and empowered.
With the latter, the bottom 99% become more lazy, stupid, indifferent, depressed, and weak while the top 1% can also become these things in addition to becoming arrogant and cruel toward those they’d look down upon as even less than the super-intelligent machines they’d rely on.
So rather than dropping a cash bomb on the most powerful nation in human history, we should for the sake of human freedom move toward homesteading.
Money shouldn’t be given to you simply for having the good fortune of being born an American, but it should be earned!
You should be able to earn a self-sufficient farm after 2–4 years of national service.
Many experts recommend at least 1 to 2 acres of land per person for a self-sufficient homestead.
So let’s say service members get “5 acres and a machine.”
As technology improves so will the quantity of our acreage as we’ll increasingly live underground, underwater, on water, in the sky, and in space; and as technology improves so will the quality of our acreage as machines will make them easier and more efficient to manage.
Our self-sufficient farm should also exist within a larger self-sufficient community.
And then to earn supplemental income you can find work in the private sector, which would inevitably increase if we made my aforementioned cuts, but even if artificial intelligence someday eliminates a lot of private-sector work then there’s still no excuse for giving people something for nothing because you should always be able to get work in the public sector of which 80%+ of it should come from local and state governments in order to decentralize political power and increase regional diversity with each government offering a different array of tests, tasks, and jobs.
Obviously, this work would be economically necessary in the beginning, but if artificial intelligence takes off to such a degree that it eliminates work for virtually everyone with an IQ below 115 and beyond then it’d be done more out of political and psychological necessity.
You see, society has an interest in incentivizing its rulers — We the People — to be informed, responsible, strong, and moral.
This means whereas today the work would be sweeping streets, making masks, constructing homes, etc in the future it could take the shape of more fun tests and tasks such as mastering shooting, driving, flying, survivalism, long-distance running, civics, etc.
In the Age of Abundance, the Right will be less about “government bad” and more about how to use our limited local governments to bring about “the better angels of our nature.”
You can then spend your supplemental income on luxuries and stocks whereby over time you won’t need a supplemental income because you’ll have more than enough of an investment income to live off of.
The future is capitalist yeomen!
Yes, one collective farm run by one global AGI government could theoretically be more efficient than many small farms run by individual families, but in the Age of Abundance, efficiency becomes less of a concern and checks-and-balances become absolutely imperative to the continued existence of humanity.
Mass convenience must take a back seat to self-control. We should not trade future generations’ freedom for our instant gratification.
Instead of the globalist vision where everyone will “own nothing and be happy,” we must make America a nation of owners again.