Thread by @scottsantens

"It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages."

Money is meant to circulate through economies. Customers buy stuff. That money becomes wages. Those wages buy stuff, etc.

Here's a diagram of how this works.

As factors of production become machines, factor incomes are reduced, which in turn reduces personal consumption, which in turn further reduces factor incomes.

Automation breaks this system without the provision of income external to the loop, aka unconditional basic income.

If you love the idea of decentralized market economies and hate the idea of unconditional basic income, you've got a real problem on your hands because the former requires the latter. Markets require customers who require money. As money goes to fewer hands, markets break down.

You can say that the introduction of machines as labor will drive costs to zero, which is nice to think theoretically, but is not true in reality for all goods and services. So to rely on that as a solution to this systemic problem is an example of magical thinking.

You can say that great new jobs will always be created, but that too is magical thinking, because there are always winners and losers, and everyone finding new employment earning less money is less able to purchase what their machine replacements are producing.

You can say we can create an unlimited number of jobs through the government as employer of last resort, but then why automate anything if our goal is simply job creation? We may as well just destroy all machines, and use spoons instead of shovels to dig holes we can all refill.

We're looking at a 21st century Gordian Knot, and unless we're willing right now to eliminate the concept of private property and the money we require of each other to gain access to it, then our best solution is the unconditional provision of currency.

medium.com/basic-income/i…

If we make this one change, so many doors now locked become unlocked, and our economy can start working for all of us in a way we've never before seen.

If we refuse to make this change, and continue down our current path, our system will break, and violence is a likely outcome.

So which will it be?

Do you choose to go with the existing system, but upgrading our OS with #basicincome to work better for everyone?

Or do you love/hate the way things are right now so much that you'd rather watch it break, and deal then with whatever mass suffering results?