On the other hand, better education is (particularly on this board) usually recommended as the most important defense against unployment due to automation or outsourcing. How does this fit together?
This board, and other places, are wrong: better education isn't a fix. The problem is that many people just can't be productively educated to do higher-level jobs. For some reason, well-educated people frequently think that everyone is nearly as smart as them, and just lacks opportunity, but that's simply not the case. Lots of people just don't have the aptitude or interest, and nothing will change that. Even if they aren't stupid, you can't make someone interested in being educated; that's likely a product of their upbringing, and the only way to fix that is to wait a few generations while attitudes change.
The only fix for automation-based unemployment I see is a Universal Basic Income. We already have something like this with welfare and WIC/SNAP, basically paying people to sit at home and raise kids in poverty.
The only fix for automation-based unemployment I see is a Universal Basic Income. We already have something like this with welfare and WIC/SNAP, basically paying people to sit at home and raise kids in poverty.