Article Maatschappij en samenleving
Our new job: consuming
In a world where robots and computers take over the work, is man employed by technology. Man as a true consumer!
Everything that technology produces must be consumed by the consumer. Is this the very distant future of society? A rather anxious vision of the future, but not so strange if we should believe today’s forecasts. Transportation is going to be autonomous, production will be acquired by robots that are controlled with software. We are doing a lot more with the help of people, but there are also a lot of traditional jobs that are under pressure because of technologies. And thus our entire society. Think of retirement, health industry or social certainty. There are a lot of questions about a basic income. It is a hot topic for discussion in the parliament of The Netherlands. Everyone gets a basic income that is sufficient. To get some extras, you can possibly earn it, for example with a side job. But to release the stress of living, we have the basic income. The debate is whether it is affordable for the government. They are afraid that people are not motivated to work anymore.
The idea of implementing a basic income for people that are not able to get a job is certainly not new. As some people act like the idea is new. Martin Luther King has already been testing it in some cities. In the Netherlands, we already talked about it in 1968. We never agreed, but the need to talk about it was never as important as now. Because technology continues to have a bigger impact on society. Even though, a lot of promises are not yet fulfilled. But this is partly due to the fact that we are not able to measure the impact of technology. Predictions as “46% of work in the VS will disappear within the next 20 years” are denied by other researchers. They say that it appears to be 6%. We also notice that jobs reappear. So do we educate our children the wrong way? Because work will remain ultimately, only to a lesser extent.
The introduction of a basic income has a number of potential benefits and motives (source: Wikipedia)
- fundamental human rights (rights to live, the share of natural resources);
- idealistic motives (freedom, looser relationship between work and income, income equality);
- social motives (poverty alleviation, reduction of stigma, prevention of exploitation);
- economic motives (promoting small-scale, balanced division of labor, stimulate local economy);
- emancipatory motifs (traditional valuation work performed by women);
- development patterns (basic income as development aid, universal basic income);
- practical considerations (simplicity, avoidance of arbitrariness and bureaucracy);
- practical considerations such as reduced medical expenses.
Would the future contain a ‘social certainty’ with the aid of a basic income for everyone? And are we, as a society, able to deal with this and how could we make it affordable? Not to forget: what is the amount of such income? An idea that exists for years, but is getting more attention and imitation nowadays. Definitely something to experiment with, and we do see it more and more happening in the Netherlands.
The future? Will our children in the distant future enjoy the products that are made with technology? Do they have to work less or do they even get paid by the machines because they consume the products that autonomous fabrics make? We do not know it yet. But it is getting time to think about it. Because changing social structures is more complex than producing technology. This is the challenge of the future.
More information: basisinkomen.nl
