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bitbybit | 4 months ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag +3 
 This is the only way it would possibly be funded.

Let's say governments were honest and never debased currency.  All the productivity improvements would have accrued to the populous, giving individuals more wealth and free time.  In a bitcoin world this would be how it would work.

Think of all the technological improvements in the last 50 years; that has all been harvested (read stolen through inflation) by governments for their own interests.  If we had a normal economy everyone would be working 20 hours a week.  But we don't because our value is stolen from us.  

In short we don't need UBI it's an insulting proposal to begin with.  It basically says a portion of the population is not worth any value to society.  We need hard money and people would live comfortably and create value for the world.
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JeffG | 4 months ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 Yeah, I tend to agree on most of those points.

The Iain M Banks culture books come to mind here though. Most of the society is post-money / post-work because AI has reached the level of being basically sentient. The concept of "a job" doesn't exist.

Again, I'm not having a "how can we make this work now" discussion, which everyone keeps wanting to bring this back to. I'm simply thinking aloud about what it would mean to have a world where humans didn't "work" but rather did things they were good at and enjoyed and created value for the world. 

UBI, in an odd twist, is one of the first times this discussion has reached mainstream in any meaningful way. Yes, right now, it's unimplementable BUT the question of how we can get to a world where human flourishing is more important than "work" or "being rich" or "being famous" is, to me at least, the only real question that matters.
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bitbybit | 4 months ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 It's an interesting thought.  Inflation keeps us working, even if it's in a job that's not useful to soceity.  What was providing you a comfortable living 5 years ago is now sub standard.  The problem is there is no way to get off the inflation hamster wheel ex #Bitcoin.   

I think global wealth will have to be close to evenly distributed before we get to a time where human flourishing is of peak importance.  Everyone will hold enough wealth where they don't *have* to work.  Bitcoin will start that process.