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Comment by bubblemoth | Hacker News Reader

What pressure is there to push for any of these changes? I see AI advocates discussing the concept of UBI, but I can't imagine a world where the United States would ever pass this sort of legislation. I mean, congress can barely pass a budget each year.

If you are correct, I expect corporations to reap massive profits while most Americans try to find a way to survive in a world where they are obsolete.

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There is whatever pressure you bring to bear on it. As long as you are still living in a democracy your vote is the pressure you can apply. If the parties that exist won’t represent you, make new ones that will. Do something rather than deciding it’s both impossible and up to other people anyway.

I also don’t understand why UBI is desirable. Putting everyone on welfare means everyone is poor. This won’t end well, and it’s certainly not the case that 99% of the population will let a tiny number of people remove their income in favor of pennies for all. Political violence will come first, easily.

No idea why anyone would downvote this, it's true. As someone else pointed out "b = basic." And does anyone think it will adjust with inflation?

Because the implied alternative of the comment is that people will carry on having jobs, which breaks the entire premise that there is AI that replaces all human labour. The comment is missing the point - UBI is the only suggestion anyone has so far that meets this fundamental question about the technology. We will be less poor than without UBI, unless we come up with a better plan.

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