Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Finance, the economy & Economics Universal Basic Income? Guaranteed Job?

Universal basic income and guaranteed job, and welfare, and all the rest of these good works are efforts to deal with a permanent underclass. Dummy jobs are going to go away (and its happening right now). If you do not have a college degree, or a specific needed skill, you are not going to be working, unless gov has make work projects. I remember when Washington state decided that those on welfare, and able to work, would be put to work picking up trash on the highways - the state union for highway workers put a stop to that right away (claimed it took away their jobs (which they never did))

Anyway - we are at the beginning of a very real, recognizable, and permanent underclass. So far there have been no solutions that work, and no public recognition of the problem. Those that read SciFi will probably be familiar with the problems of a permanent underclass as that has been a regular meme for a very long time. Its pretty well accepted, for instance, that fast food companies have several test sites where EVERYTHING is automated but the counter person who delivers the goods. My own suspicion is that we will eventually end up with permanent CCC and WPA as well as training for those who want it.

Before any of the above happens, of course, we are going to have to work through the dealing with our incredibly greedy, incompetent, self serving elected class which, I fear, is going to take a LONG time, effort and pain.