Thread by @Stop_Groupthink

Unpopular opinion: The fears of automation are overblown.

Thread:

Automation is a slower moving problem than we're told, just like climate change.

It's a generational issue. There will be transitional periods like in truck driving, where drivers will still remain in the car for years, until machine learning is safe and infrastructure is ready.

It will effect jobs in chunks not in sudden massive 'attacks.' Adjustments will be made. Im not against supporting those specifically impacted.

When Shumpeter talks about creative destruction, he does talk about taking care of those effected or displaced by it. I agree with this

But suddenly prescribing mass redistribution for a slow moving problem is just silly and gimmicky. A vast majority of the population will not be displaced by automation for a very long time.

What we don't talk about in parallel to automation is new job areas emerging. There are new markets and incentive areas being created already. People will freelance, monetize content and data in ways we can't even imagine.

The market will meet demand for new jobs in parallel.

You cannot have the automation discussion in a vacuum. You have to talk about new demands in the market as a byproduct of automation. This cycle always happens. New fields will emerge, demand will flow to areas with gaps. It's not the end of the world by any stretch.

Why are we talking about UBI when we're at all time high unemployment? This will obviously ebb and flow, but we're too early to be actually implementing UBI. It's gimmicky at this point and I'm not buying the doomsday sudden mass unemployment issue.

One thing @AndrewYangVFA talks about is "Mass Riots" during the industrial revolution. This is revisionism. The Luddite movements were a flash in the pan.

The industrial rev didn't displace massive amounts of people. Just like automation won't. It will mostly do good for society

While I appreciate candidates like @AndrewYangVFA bringing this issue up and being different, you can see it's an issue now being exploited for votes and 'free stuff.'

I don't want $1,000/month for doing nothing. We already have a welfare state.

The math doesn't add up.

People talk about how #UBI will lead to some renaissance period of creativity. Nonsense. It'll drift us towards San Francisco-type standards.

We're way too early to be considering UBI on this scale-at least a decade too early. Focus on those impacted by any automation first.

By this I meant all-time high *employment* of course :)