Discussing Basic Income from Forbes Article
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@momurda said in Non-IT News Thread:
@penguinwrangler said in Non-IT News Thread:
@momurda said in Non-IT News Thread:
@penguinwrangler He's certainly not demeaning blue collar jobs.
He is demeaning the useless paper pushing jobs that don't do anything.
Like half of the people at any given office get paid to do.
You know, the paper pushers who do paperwork, then push that pile of paper (real or electronic) down the line for someone else to do more paperwork and then they push that on down the line. The people who have jobs simply because that the boss wont automate, find out that they go to weekly cult meetings together. The people whose entire existence is to do nothing but show up and collect a paycheck. the one that needs constant validation after completing the most menial task.OHHHH...but wait it says "If a cleaner or bus driver doesn’t report for work, it hurts other people. (These Graeber terms “shit” jobs.)" So calling blue collar jobs shit jobs isn't demeaning?
@penguinwrangler Not sure what your point is. Those Are 'shit' jobs. Dont believe me, go ask your dad if he would have rather gone to school and got a engineering degree or maybe physics, or work cleaning toilets his whole life?
Likely anybody in the world who works as one would like to have a different job. But at least those jobs are doing actual work, getting things done. The useless office worker paper pusher is accomplishing nothing at all, except wasting their life but pushing piles of paper around. Also, I think youre misunderstanding the author here. He doesn't apply bullshit term to cleaners and such. He applies this to the people I mention, paper pushers, financial advisers, etc. He actually says 'shit' jobs like cleaning toilets is more valuable than a financial adviser, one of his 'bullshit' job types.I do get it and I do understand the person who has the BS job as the author puts it and is doing nothing and sure eliminate those jobs. My Dad didn't want to go to school, he didn't want to be an engineer or anything like that. He wanted to work with his hands. Many people do. My step-son wants to work with his hands. He doesn't want to go to school. He couldn't have been happier the day he graduated High School.
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@penguinwrangler said in Non-IT News Thread:
@momurda said in Non-IT News Thread:
@penguinwrangler said in Non-IT News Thread:
@momurda said in Non-IT News Thread:
@penguinwrangler He's certainly not demeaning blue collar jobs.
He is demeaning the useless paper pushing jobs that don't do anything.
Like half of the people at any given office get paid to do.
You know, the paper pushers who do paperwork, then push that pile of paper (real or electronic) down the line for someone else to do more paperwork and then they push that on down the line. The people who have jobs simply because that the boss wont automate, find out that they go to weekly cult meetings together. The people whose entire existence is to do nothing but show up and collect a paycheck. the one that needs constant validation after completing the most menial task.OHHHH...but wait it says "If a cleaner or bus driver doesn’t report for work, it hurts other people. (These Graeber terms “shit” jobs.)" So calling blue collar jobs shit jobs isn't demeaning?
@penguinwrangler Not sure what your point is. Those Are 'shit' jobs. Dont believe me, go ask your dad if he would have rather gone to school and got a engineering degree or maybe physics, or work cleaning toilets his whole life?
Likely anybody in the world who works as one would like to have a different job. But at least those jobs are doing actual work, getting things done. The useless office worker paper pusher is accomplishing nothing at all, except wasting their life but pushing piles of paper around. Also, I think youre misunderstanding the author here. He doesn't apply bullshit term to cleaners and such. He applies this to the people I mention, paper pushers, financial advisers, etc. He actually says 'shit' jobs like cleaning toilets is more valuable than a financial adviser, one of his 'bullshit' job types.I do get it and I do understand the person who has the BS job as the author puts it and is doing nothing and sure eliminate those jobs. My Dad didn't want to go to school, he didn't want to be an engineer or anything like that. He wanted to work with his hands. Many people do. My step-son wants to work with his hands. He doesn't want to go to school. He couldn't have been happier the day he graduated High School.
The problem here is that cleaners are useful so it's a terrible example of "useless work". Cleaners are one of the most likely to be useful positions out there.
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Instead of a cleaner, who likely literally makes dirty things clean. Think of a trench digger who digs unneeded trenches that are just filled in again. Working "with their hands" to no end, just digging to dig.
Would your dad have been equally happy doing that if the pay was the same as sitting home with his kids?
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Why we want GBI....
- More time for families. Parents get to be with kids way more.
- Higher standards of living. Everyone gets more.
- Poverty simply vanishes, wellfare isn't a stigma.
- Humans suddenly get to pursue the arts, instead of pushing papers.
- Increases the chances for scientific discovery, or artistic accomplishment.
- People do work that makes them happy, rather than work that pays the bills.
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@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
@penguinwrangler said in Non-IT News Thread:
@momurda said in Non-IT News Thread:
@penguinwrangler said in Non-IT News Thread:
@momurda said in Non-IT News Thread:
@penguinwrangler He's certainly not demeaning blue collar jobs.
He is demeaning the useless paper pushing jobs that don't do anything.
Like half of the people at any given office get paid to do.
You know, the paper pushers who do paperwork, then push that pile of paper (real or electronic) down the line for someone else to do more paperwork and then they push that on down the line. The people who have jobs simply because that the boss wont automate, find out that they go to weekly cult meetings together. The people whose entire existence is to do nothing but show up and collect a paycheck. the one that needs constant validation after completing the most menial task.OHHHH...but wait it says "If a cleaner or bus driver doesn’t report for work, it hurts other people. (These Graeber terms “shit” jobs.)" So calling blue collar jobs shit jobs isn't demeaning?
@penguinwrangler Not sure what your point is. Those Are 'shit' jobs. Dont believe me, go ask your dad if he would have rather gone to school and got a engineering degree or maybe physics, or work cleaning toilets his whole life?
Likely anybody in the world who works as one would like to have a different job. But at least those jobs are doing actual work, getting things done. The useless office worker paper pusher is accomplishing nothing at all, except wasting their life but pushing piles of paper around. Also, I think youre misunderstanding the author here. He doesn't apply bullshit term to cleaners and such. He applies this to the people I mention, paper pushers, financial advisers, etc. He actually says 'shit' jobs like cleaning toilets is more valuable than a financial adviser, one of his 'bullshit' job types.I do get it and I do understand the person who has the BS job as the author puts it and is doing nothing and sure eliminate those jobs. My Dad didn't want to go to school, he didn't want to be an engineer or anything like that. He wanted to work with his hands. Many people do. My step-son wants to work with his hands. He doesn't want to go to school. He couldn't have been happier the day he graduated High School.
The problem here is that cleaners are useful so it's a terrible example of "useless work". Cleaners are one of the most likely to be useful positions out there.
I am not saying that the author was saying the cleaners were useless work, in fact they say "If a cleaner or bus driver doesn’t report for work, it hurts other people. (These Graeber terms “shit” jobs.)" He still can't comprehend someone wanting to be a cleaner or bus driver. That is my main point. Honestly, I can do IT, I am good at it but I don't like it. If I didn't have all the back problems I have I would have gone into the construction trades or something like that.
My main point is our education system stears people to the useless work instead of the useful work.
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@penguinwrangler said in Non-IT News Thread:
My main point is our education system stears people to the useless work instead of the useful work.
Well if you combine your point ( with which I agree) and my point (that school itself is there to create useless work) I think you'll see why I like GBI. The primary PURPOSE of school is to support the very thing you dislike about it. Sure, it does other things, but this is the big one.
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The problem is, especially with American ethics, useless jobs are seen as WAY better than GBI. American ethics prefers "fair" treatment. "You work, you get paid. "
European ethics prefers overall well being. "Whatever is best for everyone."
American ethics sound great, because we grew up here. Fair sounds nice. It is nice. But it means we are all willing to lose a few dollars to keep someone else for getting a hundred dollars we don't feel that he deserves. It's not logical, it's spiteful in the end. But that's why useless jobs are SO popular in the US.
Not that they dont' exist in Europe, I've seen them a lot. But the US seems passionate about keeping them while Europe seems to want to fight them.
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@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
Instead of a cleaner, who likely literally makes dirty things clean. Think of a trench digger who digs unneeded trenches that are just filled in again. Working "with their hands" to no end, just digging to dig.
Would your dad have been equally happy doing that if the pay was the same as sitting home with his kids?
I have never seen people out that dig trenches just to fill them up again. Where does that happen? Useless positions in big corporations or government, sure those are there like the person in the article highlights. Where are people employed en masse to just occupy their time? You mention pharmacists earlier. Sure maybe they could automate most of what a pharmacist does, but there are drug cocktails that do take a pharmacist to actually make. Also before automation was available we needed humans to do it so we might eventually see pharmacists phased out but it does take time for things to adjust. So you can't say people are just employed as pharmacists to occupy their time.
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GBI isn't a bad thing, but in the world today you have to look at the politics of it and wonder what would happen if some large percentage of the workforce up and stop working.
Would GBI continue every 4 or 8 years in the US with the way politicians are? How would it be supported and paid for? Who would pay for it? Would you tax the GBI income from the very same people you're saying "don't work, we don't need you"?
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@penguinwrangler said in Non-IT News Thread:
@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
Instead of a cleaner, who likely literally makes dirty things clean. Think of a trench digger who digs unneeded trenches that are just filled in again. Working "with their hands" to no end, just digging to dig.
Would your dad have been equally happy doing that if the pay was the same as sitting home with his kids?
I have never seen people out that dig trenches just to fill them up again. Where does that happen?
In white collar paperwork all of the time. That's why blue collar jobs aren't good examples, because it would be SO obvious what they were doing, that we wouldn't do it.
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@penguinwrangler said in Non-IT News Thread:
. Sure maybe they could automate most of what a pharmacist does, but there are drug cocktails that do take a pharmacist to actually make.
There are machines that do all of that today. They are just outlawed in order to create jobs. All of that stuff happens automatically, if allowed.
And it isn't just the pharmacists, but all the pharma techs that go with them. Most pharmacies have an entire ecosystem of jobs that all depend on a fake foundation. They made sense in the past, but not today.
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@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
@penguinwrangler said in Non-IT News Thread:
. Sure maybe they could automate most of what a pharmacist does, but there are drug cocktails that do take a pharmacist to actually make.
There are machines that do all of that today. They are just outlawed in order to create jobs. All of that stuff happens automatically, if allowed.
And it isn't just the pharmacists, but all the pharma techs that go with them. Most pharmacies have an entire ecosystem of jobs that all depend on a fake foundation. They made sense in the past, but not today.
@scottalanmiller's talking about that scene in Back to the Future when hes playing the arcade game and the kids go "you have to use your hands? PFFFF"
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@penguinwrangler said in Non-IT News Thread:
Also before automation was available we needed humans to do it so we might eventually see pharmacists phased out but it does take time for things to adjust. So you can't say people are just employed as pharmacists to occupy their time.
Yes, but "phased out" would have been long ago. It's been a long time since the field was only to occupy peoples' time.
Many fields have lobbies to keep jobs in place through government intervention because it makes money for the people involved. It's more complex than ONLY being a hidden form of deceptive welfare. It's also straight up corruption, through lobbyists. But the lobbyists aren't dissuaded to heavily, since it also creates a way to reduce the welfare roles. The government benefits, too.
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@dustinb3403 said in Non-IT News Thread:
Would GBI continue every 4 or 8 years in the US with the way politicians are? How would it be supported and paid for? Who would pay for it? Would you tax the GBI income from the very same people you're saying "don't work, we don't need you"?
You probably don't tax people at all, that's not an efficient system. You'd tax corporations or products. You definitely don't tax incomes, that's insane. That would, literally, just create more work for no gain. The opposite of the goal.
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And GBI isn't about taking away jobs. It's about allowing people to stay home.
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@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
@dustinb3403 said in Non-IT News Thread:
Would GBI continue every 4 or 8 years in the US with the way politicians are? How would it be supported and paid for? Who would pay for it? Would you tax the GBI income from the very same people you're saying "don't work, we don't need you"?
You probably don't tax people at all, that's not an efficient system. You'd tax corporations or products. You definitely don't tax incomes, that's insane. That would, literally, just create more work for no gain. The opposite of the goal.
Talk to NYS about taxation then. . . they literally tax income at every opportunity. . . Oh you have a job, 30%, oh you're unemployed 30% of your unemployment check. . .
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It would phase itself pretty naturally, I think. Loads of government workers would have to do it immediately, with zero negative effects, only positive ones. As the government stopped wasting money and hundreds of thousands of workers got to stay home. That would produce a natural reduction in needs for mass transit, gas station workers, lunch restaurants, etc. All those jobs that basically just support those government bloat jobs would reduce, pretty rapidly.
Those that crave productive work will move to other positions, displacing other people that want to stay home on GBI.
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@dustinb3403 said in Non-IT News Thread:
@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
@dustinb3403 said in Non-IT News Thread:
Would GBI continue every 4 or 8 years in the US with the way politicians are? How would it be supported and paid for? Who would pay for it? Would you tax the GBI income from the very same people you're saying "don't work, we don't need you"?
You probably don't tax people at all, that's not an efficient system. You'd tax corporations or products. You definitely don't tax incomes, that's insane. That would, literally, just create more work for no gain. The opposite of the goal.
Talk to NYS about taxation then. . . they literally tax income at every opportunity. . . Oh you have a job, 30%, oh you're unemployed 30% of your unemployment check. . .
Right, because NY is big on the bloat. The more you tax, the more you can skim. The more you have to hire useless jobs.
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@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
@dustinb3403 said in Non-IT News Thread:
@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
@dustinb3403 said in Non-IT News Thread:
Would GBI continue every 4 or 8 years in the US with the way politicians are? How would it be supported and paid for? Who would pay for it? Would you tax the GBI income from the very same people you're saying "don't work, we don't need you"?
You probably don't tax people at all, that's not an efficient system. You'd tax corporations or products. You definitely don't tax incomes, that's insane. That would, literally, just create more work for no gain. The opposite of the goal.
Talk to NYS about taxation then. . . they literally tax income at every opportunity. . . Oh you have a job, 30%, oh you're unemployed 30% of your unemployment check. . .
Right, because NY is big on the bloat. The more you tax, the more you can skim. The more you have to hire useless jobs.
They literally tax the thing, you're paying for through having a job. It's double taxation. It's a ripoff and should be completely illegal, yet somehow. . .
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@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
@penguinwrangler said in Non-IT News Thread:
Also before automation was available we needed humans to do it so we might eventually see pharmacists phased out but it does take time for things to adjust. So you can't say people are just employed as pharmacists to occupy their time.
Yes, but "phased out" would have been long ago. It's been a long time since the field was only to occupy peoples' time.
Many fields have lobbies to keep jobs in place through government intervention because it makes money for the people involved. It's more complex than ONLY being a hidden form of deceptive welfare. It's also straight up corruption, through lobbyists. But the lobbyists aren't dissuaded to heavily, since it also creates a way to reduce the welfare roles. The government benefits, too.
Okay, so there is a lobbyist group on behalf of pharmacists created to protect pharmacists and slow down automation of their field and keep their jobs. That is typical human behavior to preserve their jobs and fields from automation and not some big conspiracy just to employ people in useless jobs.
