God, why are people stupid and why don’t these stupid people at least try to get educated? See the following, for example:
With robot labor, cheap wind and solar power, and a shrinking global population, post-2050 human beings could have universally high standards of living. They could put their energies into software creation, biotech, and artistic creativity, which are all sustainable. The stipend generated by robot labor would be a basic income for everyone, but they’d all be free to see if they could generate further income from entrepreneurship or creativity. And that everyone had a basic level of income would ensure that there were buyers for the extra goods or services. This future will depend on something like robot communalism, and an abandonment of racism, so that all members of the commune are equal and integrated into new, sustainable urban spaces.
The idiot who wrote this and who is actually a college professor seems completely unaware that the system he envisions as a utopia did exist. In the USSR, everybody – and I mean 100% of population – was given a basic income by the government that covered the basic necessities and that did not require anybody to work to gain it. Shockingly, the racism in that society remained horrifying. The standards of living were abysmally poor. People were so impacted by the knowledge that they didn’t need to work to cover their basic needs that even now, 20+ years after that system fell apart, they still can’t find in themselves any interest in creativity and entrepreneurship. All everybody wants is to get money for free and do nothing.
It’s been done, it didn’t work, let’s move on already. What needs to happen to convince people once and for all that the Soviet way doesn’t work? A day doesn’t pass when I don’t see at least one post on how great it would be to give everybody a basic stipend. I always hope that the authors of these article are trying to be funny but then discover that they are actually that ignorant.
Clarissa's Blog 
Would you happen to know of any English-language source that discusses basic income in the USSR and the effects it had in greater detail? Asking so I can point a very silly friend at it (he can’t believe basic income existed and didn’t turn that land into a paradise unless he’s shown something official/academic-looking,and my Google skills are failing me) and also because I’d like to read more about the subject – when was it introduced, how long did it take for things to go to hell in a handbasket, the particular ways in which things went to hell in a handbasket, that sort of stuff.
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There was 100% “employment” in the USSR which means that everybody was given “a job” where very little, if any, work needed to be done. Those “jobs” paid enough for people not to starve, but this was pretty much all they did. My mother knew a woman who had “worked” at a company for 25 years, yet had no idea what the company was called or what it was supposed to be doing.
The last time anybody actually worked in the USSR was under Stalin. He sent people to concentration camps for being 5 minutes late for work and things like that. But after his death, there was no possibility to continue these policies. The population had suffered so many losses (about 100 million altogether in just a few decades) that it was impossible to continue the repressions at the same rate. So gradually, people stopped working.
Those who still wanted to work, produce, be creative were viewed with suspicion and considered subversives in the making.
This is why by the mid1970s the economy simply stopped functioning. Nothing was made because nobody actually worked. And this still hasn’t changed! We have capitalism now, there is no welfare, but nothing is getting made.
I don’t really have any sources on this because I didn’t study this as a scholar. This is simply what I grew up with.
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There wasn’t any basic income in USSR, if you didn’t work – you could go to jail, no?
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What was called “a salary” was, in reality, a basic stipend that people got without doing any actual work. It covered the most basic necessities but that was it.
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In Quebec, where welfare benefits are guaranteed to everybody who doesn’t work, young people refuse to accept entry-level jobs (which are all they qualify for) because they have welfare, so why would they work?
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On “Love, Joy, Feminism” I read about child marriage in certain Fundumentalist Christian circles in USA:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2013/12/the-rest-of-the-maranatha-story.html
This is a real wedding picture of a couple.
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In her second post on the topic more details come to light. F.e., the girl’s father married a young teen himself and gives a disturbing description of the process. And:
” it appears that the mainstream of the Christian homeschooling movement, its major convention circuit, has chosen to give a platform to those who practice and promote the marriage of girls of 15 and 16 to much-older men”
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2013/12/matthew-chapman-and-why-i-included-laurens-picture.html
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What can I say? Disgusting, of course.
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And, last on the topic, one of commentors offered:
“I think we should change the laws so that a 16 year old should only be allowed to marry someone near his/her age. A 16 year old should not be allowed to marry a 26 year old. I have trouble believing it’s consent, especially in cases like stay at home daughters.”
In Israel recently legal marriage age was increased from 17 to 18.
Haredi MKs spoke out against the bill, which is meant to prevent teenagers from being forced into marriages when they are too young to make decisions that will impact the rest of their lives.
In some cases, such as teen pregnancy, a court can allow an exception for those over age 16.
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Minimum-marriage-age-upped-to-18-330610
What do you think min marriage age and min age for sex (with an adult) should be?
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I think that since one is legally a minor until 18, one shouldn’t be able to marry until 18. What Israel did sounds very reasonable.
Age of consent to sex with an adult should be at least 17, in my opinion.
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I love how he hails technology as the solution to all social ills, but this is impossible. Technology does not shape people’s actions; People’s actions shape technology! Virtually every time a new app or gadget hits the market and skyrockets, this is because it makes something more convenient, easier, fun or accessible.
Take smartphones for example. They have been around for years before the first iPhone came out. But they were fucking complicated and often required a corporate infrastructure to make it useful. Then apple pretty much took it and simplyfied it so that laypeople could use it more easily.
Technology has to be convenient, easy, fun or accessible, because if it is not, it will simply not get adopted by anyone. And here is the kicker: getting rid of social ills like racism or sexism is neither convenient nor is it easy.
Besides: Does he know that robots need quite some servicing?
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