XPost: alt.home.repair, alt.politics.scorched-earth, uk.politics.misc   
   XPost: uk.legal, alt.politics.uk   
   From: burfordTjustice@tues.uk   
      
   Paris (AFP) - It is a utopian idea, literally, but is enjoying a renaissance   
   as politicians and policy wonks grapple with technology-driven changes that   
   could redefine our very understanding of work.   
      
   If robots and machine intelligence threaten to render many white-collar jobs   
   obsolete, then what will people do for money?   
      
   Enter the concept of a "universal basic income", a flat sum paid to all   
   regardless of your existing wealth or ability to work. It is one of the rare   
   ideas that has support from both the libertarian right -- which favours   
   tearing up the welfare state --    
   and the left wing.   
      
   In France, Benoit Hamon has emerged as the surprise Socialist candidate for   
   April's presidential election first round, on a radical programme that   
   includes such an income -- to be funded in part by a new tax on industrial   
   robots.   
      
   National or local governments in other countries such as Finland, the   
   Netherlands, Canada, Scotland and Brazil are already evaluating how such a   
   revenue might work in practice.   
      
   Finland is furthest down the road. On January 1 it started a two-year trial to   
   give 2,000 unemployed Finns a monthly unconditional payment of 560 euros   
   ($590).   
      
   At the least, advocates argue, a basic income could replace the thicket of   
   unemployment benefits currently on offer in many advanced economies. Those   
   can, perversely, discourage people from retraining in new fields or taking on   
   lower paid work that    
   society needs, such as care for the elderly.   
      
   - Less is More -   
      
   https://www.yahoo.com/news/one-income-far-fetched-future-fact-041641247.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)