Free the Wage Slaves with Universal Basic Income

I had just been reading an opinion piece published by the Federalist and written by Brad Polumbo.  The gist of it was that the crisis regarding the avalanching level of defaults with Student Loans, was all the fault of the Students for not having all majored in some valuable work related vocational kinds of Studies.  In short, he argues that Education should be focused on its Value to the Capitalist Ruling Class and that the actual students should repress any sentimental urge to study anything for the mere sake of some selfish notions about Personal Development, or, God Forbid, the Pursuit of their own worthless Happiness.    Okay, now it’s all out in the open – that the Ruling Classes now, and probably have always felt, that the Public involvement in Education has been about cultivating more productive Wage Slaves.  The Common Masses exist for one reason only and that is to make the Rich richer.

The problem for the Greater Society is that if the Ruling Classes should be able to find Faster, Better, Cheaper replacements for the Wage Slaves which they now recruit from out of the Common Masses, then it is likely they would then let the Common Masses all waste away and starve.  They would use the same basic argument as Mr. Polumbo used, that it is the Common People’s own fault that they are poor and starving because their Great Great Great Grandparents didn’t get rich when they all had the same opportunity that their own Great Great Great Grandparents had.  

Yes, on the practical level, since we are all starving and must eat, I can see why we all should be scrambling to fight over any crumbs that fall from the Rich Man’s Table, that is, every student in the World should major in whatever the Capitalists say they need Today… which, if Mr. Polumbo would have thought about it, would simply glut the field.  I am sure that more than a few Students in recent decades have picked a burgeoning field of Enterprise and then studied 7 years to become Masters in it, only to find that the Fields of Gold had long since gone over to some new Fad Specialty.   We all learn how to Pick Cotton just as they invent Polyester.  But in the present day we are now looking at a darkening horizon that portends a greater evil then just all of us simply fighting each other for the same few jobs, for now we are facing the rise of Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Robots and an All Knowing and All Learning Net Intelligence.   Not just Blue-Collar Labor will be replaced, but also Career Professionals – the Luxury Car Crowd!  Whatever needs to be Done, robots can do it.  Whatever needs to be Thought and Decided, Net Intelligence can do that.  The only thing we are waiting for is for costs to come down.  How long will that take?  The first commercial calculator in 1972 cost $150, but in ten years they were all under $20.  We’ve seen the same curve over and over again with the cost of Black and White TVs, and then Color TVs, Mobile Phones, Home and Office Computers, then Laptops, and then Smart Phones.   It makes me wonder why we aren’t already replaced.  Maybe we are all just lucky that the Human Resources (“H.R.”) Departments are dragging their feet because they know that it would simply make sense that they should be the first to go.

So, anyway, what are all of us Common Masses waiting for?  Do we need Capitalism and a Ruling Class?   Remember that the Owners are only sucking money out of the System, and that all the Work, both in terms of Management and the Execution of the Corporate Business, is done by Salaried People – from the highest to the lowest.  The Owners do nothing but Own, and the People could do that!  My God!  Even I am as qualified as anybody on Earth could be to be an Owner and then just sit back and enjoy watching the Wealth grow up from under my feet and between my lazy toes.   

If it is inevitable that the Robots will take over all the Work, and the Networks take over all the Thinking, then We the People should move Now to assure that these Machines are Working for Us, and not for Them.  We know that if we miss our chance, then we will simply be turned out to starve.  Look at History!  Can we believe that the Misery of the Dark Ages can’t be repeated?... especially since all of these basically Ignorant Owners and Vocationally Trained Capitalists honestly believe that their Wealth – in the Billions of Dollars – is sufficient to get them through any ‘rainy day’.  If we leave it all up to Them, then we are certainly Doomed.

But if we can all get lucky, that is All of us from all around the Globe, for the Multi-National Corporations and Global Capitalists and Banks must not be allowed any corner for escape where their vast purchasing power could be used to put the rest of us all under siege, but, yes, if we can manage to wrestle away the reins to the Means of Production, then we could stipulate some Universal Basic Income for us all.  And then we could set up a New Model for Public Education which goes beyond being Vocational Schools for Slaves, but would instead aim towards Educating up our Humanity with the view of lifting every possibility in the Arts, Media, Literature and Culture… and, yes, Science too, since I suppose the Nerds will always be with us no matter how much the rest of us tease them for it.