Future Security in a Smarter World

Advances in technology are redefining our understanding of work. The rapidly evolving applications of the microchip have already reduced or replaced the need for human labor in many work environments, leaving former workers scrambling for retraining or standing frustrated and idol on the sidelines. The accelerating advance of robots and machine intelligence can be expected to continue to replace both blue and white collar workers, making the need for any human contribution obsolete. So what are people going to do to make a living?

There is a utopian concept that has been around for awhile and is once again gaining traction, that being the idea of a "universal basic income". This would amount to a flat sum of income paid to everyone, regardless of wealth or social status or employment or even ability to work. In his 1516 book "Utopia", English philosopher Thomas More imagined an ideal republic where private property is abolished and all receive a basic stipend. It is an age old libertarian dream which would expand the welfare state with hopefully a greater degree of control and purpose. As far out as it may sound, such a proposal is already on the ballot in France for this April's election. The proposal would largely be funded by a tax upon industrial robots. Current welfare programs in advanced countries are so ridden with inefficiencies that, with a radical overhaul, considerable funds for any proposed stipend could be freed up. National or local governments in Finland, the Netherlands, Canada, Scotland and Brazil are already evaluating how such a revenue might work in practice, with Finland furthest along with a 2000 citizen trial already initiated there on January 1 this year.

Proponents believe it would give everyone a safety net and encourage new modes of thinking. Work might no longer define our lives and instead we might find productive existences in volunteering for the greater good, or in the creative arts. A basic income could replace unemployment benefits that can discourage people from retraining in new fields or taking on lower paying work that society genuinely has need for, such as care for the elderly and work in many other service industries. If mass unemployment and growth of technology are trends we can expect to continue, giving everyone a basic income gives the jobless a step up with a basic level of security, upon which they can then build at their option.

Detractors slam the idea as a costly way of rewarding the lazy and the feckless. Worried that large numbers of people will choose not to make a productive contribution beyond receipt of their basic income, there is understandable concern about where the money will come from.

One thing is certain: As new technologies continue to replace workers, a looming question in our future may be how best to provide economic security for all. A universal basic income may be an unexpected part of the answer.