Author Topic: Blog Post Suggestions for BM & Co  (Read 8768 times)

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Offline BunkerChainLabs-DataSecurityNode

I liked your post, however I'm a little disappointed that you did not suggest other possible solutions to the problems that basic income is designed to fix, specifically as CLains implied,

Yup, that's a cool topic. Especially with the second machine revolution and the rise of bullshit jobs.

With technology replacing more and more jobs, only the owners of this technology will be reaping most of the profits, and only the highly intelligent will be able to find work. As a human race, we have achieved the creation of virtually laborless wealth-machines. As a human race, don't you think we ought to share this freedom and liberation together?

Define "share".

as I understand it, he means that a minority of people right now has freedom=free-time=money(?)....

The bar for education and the meaning of life has to take a paradigm shift from where it is now as the understanding of 'make a living' changes to 'make a life'. Think of something like Star Trek Next Generation where exploration, learning, and advancement were in an of themselves what was valued over monetary wealth.. at least for most. I said LIKE btw.. just trying to illustrate a potentially different outlook for society in the future.

Redistribution of the ones with many to the ones with little will only ultimately serve to further enhance the underlying issues that existed to create that reality. Six months to a few years later the money would end up right back where it began.

Just my 2.9 cents.  :)
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Offline liondani

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I liked your post, however I'm a little disappointed that you did not suggest other possible solutions to the problems that basic income is designed to fix, specifically as CLains implied,

Yup, that's a cool topic. Especially with the second machine revolution and the rise of bullshit jobs.

With technology replacing more and more jobs, only the owners of this technology will be reaping most of the profits, and only the highly intelligent will be able to find work. As a human race, we have achieved the creation of virtually laborless wealth-machines. As a human race, don't you think we ought to share this freedom and liberation together?

Define "share".

as I understand it, he means that a minority of people right now has freedom=free-time=money(?)....

Offline bytemaster

I liked your post, however I'm a little disappointed that you did not suggest other possible solutions to the problems that basic income is designed to fix, specifically as CLains implied,

Yup, that's a cool topic. Especially with the second machine revolution and the rise of bullshit jobs.

With technology replacing more and more jobs, only the owners of this technology will be reaping most of the profits, and only the highly intelligent will be able to find work. As a human race, we have achieved the creation of virtually laborless wealth-machines. As a human race, don't you think we ought to share this freedom and liberation together?

Define "share".
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Anything said on these forums does not constitute an intent to create a legal obligation or contract between myself and anyone else.   These are merely my opinions and I reserve the right to change them at any time.

Offline fluxer555

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I liked your post, however I'm a little disappointed that you did not suggest other possible solutions to the problems that basic income is designed to fix, specifically as CLains implied,

Yup, that's a cool topic. Especially with the second machine revolution and the rise of bullshit jobs.

With technology replacing more and more jobs, only the owners of this technology will be reaping most of the profits, and only the highly intelligent will be able to find work. As a human race, we have achieved the creation of virtually laborless wealth-machines. As a human race, don't you think we ought to share this freedom and liberation together?

Offline arhag

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I'd love to see your thoughts about basic income.

http://bytemaster.bitshares.org/article/2015/01/26/The-basics-of-Basic-Income/

Quote
If you assume the Basic Income budget is set at a level that would replace existing spending on safety net programs then we could probably get everyone a $400 Basic Income.

Not sure how you calculated that. Looking at the US spending budget for 2014, I calculate approximately $700 billion for OASI Benefits (old age social security), $140 billion for DI Benefits (disability insurance component of social security), $455 billion for Medicaid (healthcare subsidies for the poor which I assume basic income should make irrelevant; I will leave Medicare for seniors alone for now), and another $500 billion in other welfare (food stamps, earned income tax credits, child tax credits, unemployment insurance, housing subsidies, etc.). So that is approximately $1.8 trillion dollars in government spending on welfare that could instead be used for a basic income (I am assuming you keep taxes the same, meaning don't cut the payroll taxes even though social security and Medicaid would be gone).

If we decide to distribute this money equally to all adult US residents (let's not count children for now), then that means $1.8 trillion dollars needs to be divided equally to approximately 235 million people. This gives $7660 per year, or approximately $636 per month (more than 50% higher than what you claimed). Still, it's not that great. It is only a little bit higher than half of minimum wage. And paying for it requires getting rid of the focused assistance that could potentially provide more bang for the buck. On the other hand, it does simplify things beautifully and it solves the welfare trap issue that you mentioned in the blog post.

What if we want to include children in the calculation as well? Well let's assume $280/month (the median child support payment that you claimed in the blog post) is allocated for each child (paid to the parents/legal guardians of course). There are 74 million children in the US, so the costs of the basic income for the children would be $250 billion per year. This leaves $1.55 trillion dollars for the basic income for adults, or $550/month. The typical family of four would receive 2x $280/month for the two kids, and 2x $550/month for the two parents, summing to a total of $1660/month for the household, or $19,920/year.

By the way, I don't think it is fair to say $1000/month basic income for each adult would provide a "middle class" lifestyle in the first world. The median household income is $53,000 per year (median is what I would consider "middle class"). If you have two adults living together (typical household) their collective basic income would be $24,000 per year which is less than half of the median household income. Even if we only focus on states with lower costs of living, for example Mississippi with a median household income of approximately $39,000 per year, $1000/month would still not cut it. This isn't to say that I think the basic income should cover what is today a median household income in the US, just that I wouldn't call it a "middle class" lifestyle.

Edit: I think I see how you can get the $400/month figure. If you keep social security as it is (old age and disability) as well as Medicare, and only get rid of Medicaid ($455 billion) and other welfare ($500 billion), then you have $955 billion per year to distribute to 195 million adults in the US between the ages of 18 and 64 (seniors aged 65 and above can rely on social security and Medicare as they do today). This gives a monthly basic income to the non-senior adults of $407/month. If you want to include the $280/month basic income per child, then that leaves only $300/month for each non-senior adults.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2015, 03:24:18 am by arhag »

Offline ozvic

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Offline bytemaster

Would be fantastic to see a review of MaidSafe and how the technology can be/is complimentary to BitShares.

MaidSafe is going to start popping up in the media over the next year or so (testnet 3) and it would be beneficial to be properly positioned.

https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=13731.msg178889#msg178889

Great idea.
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Offline oldman

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Would be fantastic to see a review of MaidSafe and how the technology can be/is complimentary to BitShares.

MaidSafe is going to start popping up in the media over the next year or so (testnet 3) and it would be beneficial to be properly positioned.

https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=13731.msg178889#msg178889
« Last Edit: January 26, 2015, 09:22:08 pm by OldMan »

Offline bytemaster

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Offline fluxer555

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Bytemaster, you did not illuminate your position at all with that post.

What do you agree on? Which statement was a figure of speech?

Offline bytemaster

I am fairly certain we agree about global warming and that is statement was a figure of speech. 
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Offline fluxer555

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I was just reading this infographic about global warming, and it talks about how global warming is the result of market failure. I was going to ask what kind of coordination problem needs to be solved here, and what blockchain technology could help to solve this, but I then remembered a vague memory that bytemaster thinks global warming is a scam:

https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1397.msg14948#msg14948

It is also possible I'm misinterpreting his statement here.

What is also interesting is that Stan references mining rigs as 'global warming hardware'. Is this a topic you disagree on with your father? If so, I'd like to hear you both talk about what your differences are in in interpreting the facts.
« Last Edit: January 25, 2015, 07:55:44 pm by fluxer555 »

Offline CLains

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I'd love to see your thoughts about basic income.

Yup, that's a cool topic. Especially with the second machine revolution and the rise of bullshit jobs.

Offline fluxer555

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I'd love to see your thoughts about basic income.