UBI Works 🇨🇦

We interviewed Geoffrey Hinton, Nobel Laureate and 'Godfather of AI' on job automation and his support for UBI Here are some highlights (0:00) Job Loss Threat (1:44) UBI: Necessary but Not Enough (2:45) Wales UBI Pilot (4:13) Tech Leaders Back UBI (6:08) Hinton's Reply to Yann LeCun (6:54) Taxing AI for UBI (7:22) UBI Models Explained (13:57) AI Could Automate All Jobs in 50 years

South Korea's first UBI president had something to do with this ubiworks.ca/blog/south-kor…

South Korea launched basic income in rural counties across the nation to boost local businesses Kim Pan-jong, who runs a tomato juice business, said he expanded into local retail after previously selling only online. "We expect more customers from within the region" 🫰

Dr. Paul Kershaw (UBC & GenSqueeze) says Canada's housing policy has avoided hard truths "Housing insecurity finances housing wealth gained by older generations" "We aren't gonna fix housing without an honest conversation... Do we want [home prices] to rise, stall, or fall?"

🎯 Our ideas of ownership need to shift to a collective understanding of assets that are driving this productivity and innovation. We have produced the content and knowledge behind AI. The US' unique openness to brilliant people from all over the world has driven it too.

No coincidence then that one of the most popular policy options to distribute AI gains is through the tried-and-true, dividend-paying sovereign wealth funds. We've encountered the problem of economic polarization before -- AI is simply a trend accelerator.

Nice work @MattBruenig @JerusalemDemsas

@kenjaminyang @MattBruenig x.com/floydmarinescu…

Outstanding @MattBruenig. We already have the economic policy solutions to AI, because we've seen these problems before. "The most obvious vehicle for social ownership of this sort would be a dividend-paying social wealth fund like Alaska has... the practical reality is that governments in the U.S. already run nearly 5,000 public pension funds that differ from this proposal only in that their return goes to fund retirement benefits rather than to fund a universal dividend." theargumentmag.com/p/ai-could-des…

Bank of Canada: "We need house prices to come down, so that housing is more affordable." How many politicians have the guts to say this? So far, few. Remember, most Canadians would be ok with home prices coming down. Let's normalize this narrative. x.com/SteveSaretsky/…

Pretty much everywhere it has been tested.

Dr. Paul Kershaw (UBC & Generation Squeeze) says Canada's housing policy has avoided hard truths “Housing insecurity finances housing wealth gained by older generations" "We aren't gonna fix housing without an honest conversation... Do we want [home prices] to rise, stall, or fall?"

Where has Basic Income ever worked? Right here in Canada.

Our property tax system captures only ~10% of the rental value of land, created by public investments, workers & businesses, not by the individual owners. Property owners pocket the other 90%. If we want to address the housing (i.e. land) crisis, we should start here.

This is just what you see in the headlines. But quietly, it's happening throughout the economy, in small businesses everywhere. We'll need less and less labour for the same economic output.

I regularly get messages that I'm fearmongering about AI. My first job at a big law firm can be 100% automated today. Classmates are telling me their firms are planning to hire fewer juniors, and maybe none with <3 yrs exp. Our team has already deployed tech for many tasks that would've required hiring someone a few years ago, allowing us to do much more with less (labor and $). I'm optimistic about where technology will take us in living standards, healthcare, agri, and research. But we have to acknowledge that what we're seeing is an accelerating K-shaped economy as the economic incentives to automate compound. None of this is theoretical.

Dave Shaprio is one of the most important voices in the field of post-labor economy! I'm happy to share his Kickstarter campaign!

Universal basic income required and tax AI

93% of US jobs can be done at least partly by AI, per Forbes