[bsmith]

It's meant to be rhetorical; of course being born makes you worthy of survival! But what if working doesn't provide you enough sustenance? And what if you don't even have the opportunity in the first place, once the demand for human labor is low enough?

[devoply]

We have more than enough resources. If working does not provide enough sustenance then we need to replace the government. These are political issues not economic ones. We can solve the problem of production with automation, however the problem of distribution remains and if the government is not distributing resources to you then you need to take that government down and replace it with one that does. That ultimatum hopefully makes politicians understand that they are no longer serving their corporate overlords but the people. They have been ignoring the people so long that might get some getting used to.

Most innovation done today I would say a good 99% of what constitutes the job market is trivial and can be automated away in the next 50 years. What remains is the 1% of scientists and engineers that actually make shit happen and strive to change the game. It's fine with me if these people live like kings and the rest of us have enough resources and all the free time in the world to do whatever we want and not be encumbered by trivial work. Maybe we can bring back hunting gathering civilizations or other microcosms of civilization and ways of life.

[pharrlax]

>It's fine with me if these people live like kings and the rest of us have enough resources and all the free time in the world to do whatever we want and not be encumbered by trivial work.

One problem with this that springs to mind is that historically, relative numbers of young, bored, jobless men and crime rates are tightly correlated.

[devoply]

Gaming. Virtual reality. Virtual reality porn. They can be hooligans there. You want somewhere to prove yourself do it there. We should in fact create a de facto virtual reality simulation to take over lots of useless social things we do with material goods and services like expensive cars, clothing, and whatnot. All the conspicuous consumption can happen in virtual reality. That's much better for the environment too. Leave the actual real world alone and focus on implementing our imaginations in the virtual world.

It's already happening: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-video-games-jobs-e...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/13/gamer-prefers-virtu...

[pc86]

This argument ignores history, human psychology, and basic reality.

[devoply]

Human beings don't live in reality they live in their imaginations work to bring that imagination into the real world through technology. History is just that history, we never had this sort of tech so looking to history and saying it won't work is irrelevant. Basic psychology is that humans don't live in the real world but in their imaginations. There is already a subsection of society that's already so involved in gaming that they don't care about the "real" world any more, links on the edit above.

[jk563]

I think that instead of creating pseudo-jobs to counter this, perhaps we look into the 'bored' aspect. Can we provide stimulation to avert the negative results seen historically? When we say that we have and distribute the resources needed to survive, do we include entertainment among these resources?

[crispyambulance]

... and that's when you reach for the pitchforks along with the others.

[jbob2000]

And get crushed by drone strikes. The old methods of overthrowing power don't work any more!

[crispyambulance]

mmm, don't be so sure about that, at least not yet.

Drone strikes have failed to "crush" any insurgency thus far and there is a strong argument that they've inflammed the situation wherever they've been used as weapons.

Moreover, "pitchforks" come in many forms.

[gremlinsinc]

THere's also the fact that given enough timeline when 90% of the world's population is out on the street, All economies will suffer, because you cannot have capitalism IF you don't have consumers. No purchases = No income. -- UBI puts money in pockets, for people to keep consuming locally, and props up local economies.

[TheAdamAndChe]

Exactly. The reason the US has had a drawn-out War on Terror right now is because it has the potential to hurt us more than anything else. Asymmetric warfare strategies can be very, very effective while using almost no resources.

[kefka]

Absolutely. And there are many a jobs that can allow a great amount of destruction on the sly, and cheaply.

I'll refrain about mentioning exactly what - but many of us are engineers. It would not be difficult to get some ideas.

[DannyB2]

Those ordering drone strikes on their own citizens might discover that some significant fraction of drone operators are unwilling to carry out such orders.

[crispyambulance]

Keep in mind, however, that civil wars are among the most cruel and vicious of all wars.

The Rwandan genocide was between Tutsi's and Hutu's, the culmination of a long list of beefs the origin of which defies rational explanation.

Not saying that something similar is likely here, but it could happen in time given the right environment and grievances.

[plandis]

This is why you keep the military well off comparatively. Give them a nice incentive and the majority won't turn