(versión en castellano)
Without a doubt, the current pandemic is going to have consequences in the working environment of many people. Companies and workers who have managed to keep daily activities remotely, have demonstrated that the technology is sufficiently developed to allow teleworking; something that was already happening in many companies. Don’t be surprised if after this pandemic there would be even more flexibilization in the work environment to allow more people to work from home, more days a week, than they already had before all this started.
But the ravings of the quarantine that I want to bring you today is more futuristic than that. Economists have been debating for some time now, how society will work in a not too far future, when artificial intelligence begins to massively displace from their jobs those who today depend on a salary.
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| Uber - Driverless truck |
The fact is that during this pandemic (most likely with no intention to) some developed countries are unconsciously testing what some economists anticipate could be the solution to the economic problem that the development of artificial intelligence implies. Direct state subsidies to workers who lost their jobs because of the pandemic, reflect the basic idea of a universal minimum wage, in a society where jobs have been hijacked by machines and artificial intelligence. A universal wage to ensure that people, even without jobs, have money to spend and maintain the movement of goods and services. Without that demand of woods and services the system would completely stop. It is in other words, a direct subsidy to keep the blood of our economy running and to avoid revolts and revolutions.
