Still pretty secure on the Bernie wagon but yang deserves to have his opinions heard. Universal basic income is something this nation really needs to talk about if it can ever stop calling anything that's vaguely left wing socialist

Coincidentally I just listened to this guy on the Joe Rogan podcast. He contends that it's widely accepted that 25 - 30% of jobs will be lost to automation by 2030, which really isn't that far away...

Massive policy change / legislation takes time so I think it's important that we start discussing  serious solutions now, whether that be UBI or something else...

I think the strides that AI is making today, not tomorrow, is showing just how close we are to a huge disruption in the jobs market. We're a world away from the 90s...

Driver-less cars and trucks will absolutely come in within the next 10 years - there are working prototypes already out there - the software isn't quite there yet, but if we look at the acceleration of improvement it really does seem just around the corner. You really think it's gonna take them another 20 years to get it over the line?

AI is also poised to replace millions of call centre jobs, not to mention the huge amounts of jobs and businesses Amazon continues to render redundant by it's continued harnessing of technology and automation...

Hell, here in the UK, there must have been a tonne of jobs lost just by the introduction of self-check throughs in every supermarket.

I'd suggest listening to the podcast and let me know what you think : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTsEzmFamZ8

I love that Yang has brought up these subjects, so he'll be great to have in the debates. He's already had an effect, actually. Bernie has begun talking about automation. Not sure if anyone else has in the 2020 field, but AOC has started talking about taxing robots, the same idea Bill Gates had to fund a UBI. She'll probably be a future candidate alongside Yang, debating how to best do a UBI program, sometime in the future when automation has begun to really take its toll and made the current economic model unsustainable.

Sounds like he has some interesting and unique policies that make him stand out for me. I'll have to look into him. Based on what little I've heard, he seems to come from an entrepreneurial/business angle, but on the liberal side, which is interesting and isn't particularly common here in America.  

Hopefully Tulsi is able to follow suit and hit that magic number too.

Not a fan of his solutions but he does raise some pertinent problems America will have to face. I'd much rather see Tulsi on the debate stage but Yang still deserves a spot.

Nice, I'm happy to hear him in the debates. Not exactly the best candidate imo but one which needs to be heard.

Btw, who else has already reached the 65k threshold for the debates?

Yeah, the effect on the value of the currency itself could be quite complicated. Which is why I would start with a smaller UBI or make initially only a part of the people eligible (like seniors) and incrementally increase the amount and/or the persons eligible, all while watching which effects it has. Every economical policy can have widespread effects that are hard to gauge initially. We have to see what happens here.

Another effect you didn't talk about is, that the value of jobs changes with a UBI. If poor people have the option to turn down jobs that are dangerous or otherwise problematic, it could happen that safe jobs in an office might get paid less while dangerous jobs get paid more. Also it will effect prices. Prices of some products might go down (especially products which include much manual labor currently) and for others up. The effects will be complicated.

I think we need to discuss the future more. Currently every discussion is bound to short term effects and partisan politics.

Yeah, policies getting to easily a partisan label, be it left-wing or right-wing. In reality many issues are more complex and have up- and downsides for different sides of the political spectrum.

Yep, we need to think more future oriented.

Yeah, politics has become so much about short-term effects and direct outcomes instead of a broad political vision of the future.

Well, the job structure has changed a lot since the 90s. The effects have been covered a lot by giving people tasks that are pretty much useless to keep them working. A phenomenon the David Graeber has called bullshit jobs.

AOC is a good politician to look out for in the future, I have high hopes in her. On the other side I got high hopes in Obama, and it turned out he acted more centrist and less change and hope than I expected.

Yeah, I think Tulsi should be on the debate-stage too. And the DNC allows up to 20 people, so there is room enough for both.

Not sure. He is with this counter the only one (I am aware of) who made it that transparent. I think Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris might have enough donors, but they also have good enough polls to qualify, so they probably will not tell. The smaller candidates might issue a press release, if they reach the threshold.

I agree that there is a degree of unpredictability with these things but there are some serious job-replacement systems knocking on the door - maybe your 20 years prediction will prove to be correct, but maybe it will happen sooner and we need to be prepared for that... As I mentioned - the writing is on the wall for truck drivers and a little further down the road, ubers/taxis, delivery drivers & public transport - that alone will displace a boat-load of people, many of whom lack many transferrable skills or good education...

And in regards to computers - yes, I'm sure they had a big impact but what I would say is that a large amount of them require human input, whereas automation is another beast - it straight-up just doesn't need us!

She's been rocking the boat, which I take to be a good sign. Obama talked a big game, but there wasn't a lot of action behind his words before his run for President, and if we'd looked a little harder, we'd have seen that. Same with O'Rourke today, but people have learned their lesson and are already onto him. It's why Bernie has such a following. He stuck to his beliefs and policies for his entire career, even when doing so left him on the political sidelines for decades. AOC looks like the start of that. We'll get a good half decade out of her before she's even eligible for a Presidential run, so we'll see if she turns out more like Bernie or more like Obama. I'm hopeful based on what I'm seeing so far.