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Cory Doctorow: The people who tell you ‘AI is changing everything’ are lying
(www.thenerve.news)
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this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2026
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thats sounds awesome
Well, in part it answers the question "what if I lose my job to AI" - at least you don't become deadweight in the economy, you'd still have income to spend on housing, food and whatever else.
In theory, yes.
Reality: we already have shit welfare programs and I doubt UBI will fix it. I also doubt we'll even get to a point of UBI in my remaining career time. At least not without a lot of blood.
The present as is is pretty bad, I'd hope we can fix that before theorycrafting the future. economists 100 years prior theorycrafted 15 hour work weeks, and look how far we've come.
Reality: we have 134 federal shit welfare programs, every one of them with some needs based proctological exam required prior to qualification to apply for possible consideration for aid as a last resort when the other 133 programs won't cover the needs. That is toxic bullshit driving guilt and shame among a majority of flyover state conservative voters who are in denial that their ass is on Federal assistance so they get vocal about how bad it all is (but quietly: don't you dare cancel MY aid program, I deserve it.)
Reality: every single living breathing human being in this country NEEDS a certain amount of money to pay for food, shelter, and if you happen to be fortunate enough to own your shelter outright and grow your own food, you have a shit ton of taxes to pay, so...
If we would start with UBI, shitcan all the piddly little needs based programs that provide less than UBI anyway, people could actually put the time, effort and emotional energy that's wasted on qualification for needs based programs into something positive. Even sitting on the fucking couch getting stoned while watching Netflix brings more positive energy to our country than the welfare programs.
In effect, after all the hoop jumping and contorted political favors, we have a progressive tax system that does provide UBI plus a dose of https://genius.com/The-clash-know-your-rights-lyrics Investigation, humiliation And if you cross your fingers, rehabilitation... and then it turns around and lowers the percentage tax rate on the wealthiest, so it's the middle class that's getting screwed, and when we get done destroying the middle class who's going to pay then? UBI + flat tax makes a progressive tax system. The current US budget could be revenue neutral with $600 per month + 31% flat tax, and still give the rich as much in "incentive programs" as the population is getting in UBI.