AI's Job Shake-Up Is Accelerating. Is It Time For Universal Basic Income, UBI? ⏰ CNN

[appalachiablue]

As AI eliminates jobs at a historic pace, former 2020 pres. candidate Andrew Yang argues that UBI could help Americans adapt to the rapidly changing economy. Nov. 29, 2025. (10 mins).

AI job cuts surge as companies turn to automation. Andrew Young, Founder, The Forward Party.

[GreatGazoo]

1. UBI would solve only the smaller part of the issue

The bigger issue is the damage being done to mental health, democracy and the fabric of civilization.

We need to demand that all of these issues be addressed and we need to advance a positive vision for the future in order to thwart dystopia. A tall challenge indeed.

[appalachiablue]

2. This is critical and enormously important, esp the amt of damage & challenges to face. Thanks for posting.

[crud]

3. Some profits from AI need to go to displaced workers. n/t

[appalachiablue]

4. Definitely, thanks for posting.

[patphil]

5. I've been saying this for quite some time now.

A combination of AI and robotics will cost millions of jobs in the US, and 10's of millions of jobs world wide within the next 10-20 years. What will be left will be those jobs that need a human to perform them. And as time continues forward, those jobs will slowly dwindle.
Here's the problem. Anyone who think government or industry will pay millions of people who can't find work the money it takes to survive is seriously deluded. Yang wanted to give out $1,000 per month. That won't even buy food for a family of 4, let alone put a roof over their heads and clothes on their backs.
Also, who's going to buy the goods produced in an AI society? Consumers need money to do their consuming.
The only way this can work is in a world where the population is only a very small fraction of what it is now, and a new generation of people has been weaned away from a consumer based society.
To parody the words of Jesus, "The rich you will always have with you" in that kind of society.
Everyone else will be poor, and barely have enough to survive.
Lets face it, the rich ain't gonna care if we live or die as long as they've got theirs. AI plus robotics will insure they do.
George Carlin said it best:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oLI0RuDAqjI

And when Carlin said that, he wasn't factoring in the impact of AI. It's gonna be worse than he said.

[appalachiablue]

6. Appreciate the comments and agree about massive changes ahead. Losses from human jobs will be

staggering for the majority of the population in America. I recently read that one of the prominent tech billionaires thinks the US will only need a population of about 100 million because of the coming AI Revolution. There's currently around 370 million people here I think.

George Carlin always gets it, deeply. This era will be very rough and as a creature of the 20th century I'm glad I'll be gone before things get really bad but I have major concerns about the welfare of younger generations and the fate of society overall. Thanks again.

[patphil]

7. One of the big problems I see with AI is that it's all logic and reasoning; no compassion or empathy.

The great Issac Asimov solved this problem with the 3 laws of robotics:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

Very idealistic, and it would work in a society where people have mutual respect for each other and are willing to build systems that adhere to those laws. But we can see from history, and current republican leadership, that certain members of humanity would never agree to these laws being universally applied.
After all, if you can't use a smart robotic device to intimidate, control, and dominate those people who you have marginalized and want to suppress then you'd have to modify them so that they could be used to those ends.
The billionaire class and the governments they are setting up have very little empathy for middle and lower class people, and especially people who are racially or ethnically different from them.
They adhere to the philosophy that people are either hammers or nails, and they intend to be the hammers.
AI will be their new tool to that end, but god help us when AI is able to decide that it would rather be the hammer, and all of humanity the nail.