Universal basic income is the only way capitalism can survive automation. Why? Because every seller needs a buyer. Every billionaire needs his consumers. You really think people like Mark Zuckerberg supporting UBI is a good sign?
The only other option would be, from the POV of the bourgeosie at least, mass murder - maybe at some point rich folks would have automated work so much that they don't need the other couple billion humans on the planet anymore. But that would mean a mass revolt, so UBI is probably the safer route.
Imagine UBI existing and most jobs being automated: Do you really think you'll get enough money? Or do you think those greedy mfs will give you barely enough to survive, and the minute you complain about it they'll cut off your UBI for violating the conditions, which will in effect be your death sentence, because you as a proletarian never owned any means of production, meaning that you don't have any land to grow food on and no seeds to sow, meaning that having money on hand is the only way you can survive, money that you won't have once the rich and powerful turn off your handouts?
Once automation sets in more and more people will realize the downfalls of capitalism that mfers like Karl Marx have already pointed out to you in the 1800s.
But think about it for a moment: Humans have ALWAYS tried to produce as many goods with as little labor as possible. That's why we used fire in the first place, that's why we invented the wheel, that's why discovered metals, invented the book print, cars, telephones, the Internet. All those steps helped us produce more and better goods with less labor in the same amount of time. All those steps helped us go from primitive hunters & gatherers to city-dwelling modern folk. That progress is something humanity has always been striving towards, regardless of economic system.
But now, because of the way late capitalism works, humans innovating labor so damn efficiently that we don't even need to WORK anymore is seen as something BAD, instead of being the greatest innovation of all time, instead of being the moment humans finally passed into a post-scarciity world, a world where there is no need to constantly waste precious hours of our limited time on this Earth just to ensure our own survival. So is the mass automation of labor really so bad?
The sad answer is: Under capitalism, it is. The minute you were born, your life was measured in money, starting with the hospital fees your parents had. If you, like the vast majority of humans on Earth, belong to the proletarian class, then your entire worth is merely measured in wage labor. You don't own land. You don't own notable real estate. You don't own factories. You don't own patents, robots, machines, tools. All you own is your wage and the few things you can buy off of that - nothing much in the grand scheme of things. Your entire livelihood depends on your wage labor, on a rich man paying you enough so that you can go out there and buy other things from other rich men. If now robots replace your wage labor, then what are you worth to the bourgeoisie? You were never an owner, you were merely a worker. You would now be worthless within capitalism. That's the perverted thing about this system: The greatest innovation of mankind will be absolutely detrimental to the vast majority of mankind. Instead of rejoicing, we will be devastated. That isn't a given - it could all be different, we could let humanity benefit so much from automation, we could end world hunger, we could permanently end all poverty, everyone would have enough to survive. But it won't happen, at least not as long as capitalism lives on.
Once robots take labor over, UBI will be the only thing that keeps consumption running at that point - this is why I am against UBI as a socialist. Socialist are not interested in handouts, fuck your handouts. Instead of focusing on handouts, that means how wealth is distributed, we should focus on how wealth is MADE. Distribution won't mean shit to us once automation hits in. We will never be truely free until we own the means of our own production and enjoy the fruits of our own labor. Until then we will always be slave to the bourgeoisie, whether it's through wage labor now or through UBI later. We as a human race will only progress if those who work also own the means they work with, if we stop having to depend on selling our labor to rich folk to survive, and instead overthrow our bosses and become our OWN bosses. Fuck UBI.
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