Automation: another reason for a universal Guaranteed Livable Income

"the economic goal of any nation as of any individual,
is to get the greatest results with the least effort...
It is for this reason that men use their ingenuity to develop
100,000 labour saving inventions. ...
The progress of civilization has meant the reduction
of its employment not its increase."
Henry Hazlett, Economics in One Lesson, 1946.

"CyberGuard always (and automatically) shows up for work every day, never calls in sick, never sleeps on the job, and always gets its paperwork in on time. People can't be expected to maintain peak performance when engaged in a tedious task for long periods of time.  CyberGuard loves tedium and is just as alert at the end of its shift as the beginning." 

"West Vancouver grocery-store owner locked in a bitter strike battle has unleashed his latest weapon -- automated checkout machines." 2006

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology:

"Study: RFID saves money, displaces workers... efficiencies driven by technology will ultimately mean fewer jobs." 2004

"Already common in security systems and tollbooths, radio frequency identification tags and readers stand poised to take over many processes now accomplished by human toil." Scientific American article, Jan 2004

"think of RFID tags as high-tech bar codes... [they] only need to come within 10-30 feet of a reader and don't have to be pointing a certain way." USA Today, 2003

Canadian RFID Centre

Canadian RFID information

At present around 100 Wal-Mart suppliers use RFID tags. However, this number will increase to 300 by the end of this year. RFID News 2006

The jobs that will be affected by RFID are those that involve scanning bar codes.

In the future, every item will soon be tagged. As we move up the RFID enterprise ladder, we will soon look back and wonder what it was like before RFID tagging. 2006

simple explanation of RFID technology

"Falling or stable robot prices, increasing labour costs and continuously improved technology are major driving forces which speak for continued massive robot investment in industry," 2004

But many Tech proponents who don't advocate for guaranteed income simply tell us "don't worry be happy" because we will be freed from our mundane jobs to do "higher-value jobs"

"It is only a matter of 10 to 20 years before nearly every factory in the U.S. and Japan is entirely automated. In the U.S., more than 10 million people will lose their jobs."

Robots taking Jobs

Robotic Freedom

"My first suggestion is that everybody is entitled to a guaranteed income, sufficient to live with dignity as an absolute right-an absolute constitutional right. That at a time when the machines can turn out enough production for everybody, it is no longer necessary to force people into factories, or into offices, or into jobs unless they want a beer."
Robert Theobald, 1965

Getting Paid in our Jobless Future

Embrace the End of Work

The evidence about what technology is doing, and will do, to jobs is overwhelming. Other than smashing the machines (get out of the back-hoe and dig that ditch with your bare hands!); letting people live and die in poverty (like we are now); creating huge make-work schemes (a costly way to suck up people's lives and resources on meaningless work); or believing in the job fairy, the only logical solution is the implementation of a guaranteed livable income in every country in the world.

However technology is not the only job-stopper. When the economy 'heats up', monetary policy deliberately creates unemployment to stop inflation.

Next: Deliberate unemployment.
Back to Glut of Goods

Home