Page 55 - Monocle Quarterly Journal Vol 3 Issue 2 Spring

...Yang argues that the tried and tested economic models
participation – as well as those in low-skilled, minimum- wage positions – are more likely to go out and find less menial and more economically productive work. With an eye on national spending deficits, such a scheme, Yang argues, whilst requiring a shift in budget from other grants and benefits such as food stamps and unemployment cheques, has the potential to drive real grassroots-level growth in the economy, through more meaningful employment and the micro-business opportunities that stem from the sense of security afforded by a UBI.
As a key example to support his case, the Presidential hopeful points to a surprisingly significant group of workers in the US – truckers. According to Yang, there are approximately 3.5 million truckers in the US, accounting for over a full percentage point of the 325 million strong US population. A surprisingly significant group indeed. But a group that is at very high risk of being replaced, or at least displaced, in the near future by the inevitability of self-driving trucks.
These 3.5 million truckers, as Yang explains, are merely a marker for the far-reaching and devastating effects that will accompany the AI and automation revolution as it grows exponentially from its current embryonic levels. Surrounding the immediate freight industry are, for example, reliant and supporting industries such as retail and hospitality, which are financially entangled with the business of trucking. In such a situation, where in a best-case scenario just a third of long-distance truck drivers’ jobs are replaced by self- driving vehicles, it is not unrealistic to imagine that the loss of those million customers could leave entire towns
for containing the rise of unemployment will no longer
hold in the era of AI.
Yang describes the current employment phenomenon as “a bathtub with a giant hole ripped in the bottom.” The giant hole – expanding in size every day – is created by the jobs being lost to large-scale automation in some of the country’s most labour-intensive industries. In this sense, Yang argues that the tried and tested economic models for containing the rise of unemployment will no longer hold in the era of AI. No matter how many jobs we create, no matter how much water we pour into the bath, the tub will inevitably be emptied.
In the face of this jobs apocalypse, Andrew Yang has decided it is time to take drastic action. He is running for President of the United States of America in 2020. Whilst perhaps wildly ambitious and arguably quixotic, Yang believes that his core campaign slogan – “Let’s Put Humanity First” – is one that will resonate with the millions whom he estimates will lose their jobs to AI and automation in the coming years. And if you think that running for President is a drastic step to take in solving an economic problem, Yang’s proposed solution, as stated in his campaign poster, may seem even more radical – “It’s time for Universal Basic Income.”
As Yang explains, Universal Basic Income (UBI) is not a new idea in the realm of economics, but one that is becoming more realistic and pressing in the age of artificial intelligence. What UBI entails is a no- questions-asked sum of money provided each month to every citizen by the government ($1 000 in the case of Yang’s campaign). This, according to Yang, is in the hope of mobilising more productive ways of working amongst those who have been – and the many who will in the future be – forced out of jobs by the mass adoption of machines. And whilst at first it may sound rather counter-intuitive, in the sense that such a scheme would only exacerbate the problem by encouraging those not working to be less inclined to find work, extensive research and trials in countries such as Finland have shown that the opposite is in fact true.
These examples have shown that given some sense of financial security, those on the edge of workforce
For without the need for sleep and sustenance, robotic truck
A FUTURE WITH NO DRIVER
drivers will roll right past the very same sleepy towns that once served their human equivalents
burgers and coffee...
economically devastated. For without the need for sleep and sustenance, robotic truck drivers will roll right past the very same sleepy towns that once served their human equivalents burgers and coffee at late-night diners and put them up at roadside inns for some much-needed rest.
Expand this picture into every imaginable industry and one will begin to realise that AI and automation
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