The notion that a universal basic income can plug the gaps in an economy built on myths and techno-hype are a cover for the guilty minds who have put America in this position. For every new digital innovation that creates fortunes for a few, jobs are disappearing by the thousands.
This discussion between two knowledgeable columnists makes me think all the more that a UBI is simply an escape hatch for dream-weavers from the inevitability of a jobless future.
Meanwhile, the world's most robust engine of innovation is toying with leadership choices who would prolong the dream-induced fantasy that America can be "made strong again" by the same old lies. Wealth doesn't trickle down. Mostly it sticks to the innovators as real estate, luxury goods and investment portfolios.
Nobody seems to be able to answer the obvious question: where is the wealth going to come from to pay everybody a basic income to be unemployed and like it well enough not to revolt? Surely nobody thinks that the same folks who hoarded their wealth while the public bailed out the economy in 2008-9 are going to underwrite a new economic reality.
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