It is no secret that I am uber-bullish on STEEM and a huge supporter of Manna.
Before the start of the year, I decided these were two projects that I would do all I could to help push forward. I feel these are vitally important to the future of humanity.
Yes, you read that right....I feel these are vitally important to the future of humanity.
For this reason, I am starting what I am calling CBI-Cryptp Basic Income. To my knowledge, I am the first to coin this term. I did a search on Google to see and nothing came up in this particular order. Therefore, we are going to start the movement right here on STEEM.
Why Do We Need This?
I am a technologist meaning that I follow the technological trends. Personally, I do not care what someone's political viewpoint is, that is nothing more than misdirection. Ideology driven beliefs solve no purpose but to support the enslaving of humanity. The powers that are control both sides of the aisle and indoctrinate both ideologies. It is classic divide and conquer.
Most of what we see are just puppets for those in control. The banksters are the ones running the show since they control the monetary system. This enables them to buy up most of the corporations enabling them to profit off every aspect of life. Don't believe me, go on yahoo finance and enter the stock symbols for 50 or 100 companies and look under the Institutional Holdings...you will find all the same banks in almost all of them.
We now live in a corporatocracy. These companies control all aspects of life. They are more powerful than the government. In fact, the government is one of their arms of control. Look at most of the laws that come out and how these entities are favored.
It is no secret that wages are flat in most Western Countries over the past 20 decades. All growth is basically because of debt. The Central Banks passed out trillions the past decade putting everyone from governments to individual credit card holders on the hook for all this money.
Central in all this is the corporation. Few will ever admit it but the corporation exists for one reason: maximize profits. That is it. We can butter it up all we want by talking about corporate responsibility, job creator, and community supporter. That is all mythology. The corporation exists to provide maximum payout to those who own it. Everything it does from a charitable sense, is in an effort to gain favor to sell more products. Even the move to renewable energy was done only AFTER it made economic sense.
It is all about the money.
Accepting this helps one to realize exactly what is coming. Technological unemployment is a real thing. Yesterday I wrote an article proclaiming that 90% of all jobs are going to be eliminated over the next 20 years. I won't go into the details of why, you can read it for yourself.
https://steemit.com/technology/@taskmaster4450/2040-90-of-traditional-jobs-eliminated
There is was a reversal in the relationship between capital and labor. Traditional economics relied upon the fact that, to expand capital, labor expansion was needed. This held true for decades throughout the 20th century. Nevertheless, at some point towards the end of the century, that ceased being true. Suddenly, corporations could expand capital without increasing labor.
That was bad enough. Fast forward 20 years and we now see the situation even more dire (from the labor perspective). Not only can capital increase without the expansion of labor, labor is actually a drain on the return of capital. People cost a lot of money. Therefore, all efforts to automate jobs out will take place over the next 20 years. Robotics and AI (software) are going to take over.
This is beyond dispute. If one takes the time to look, we can see it is already happening.
"Work" as we know it is going away.
What About Universal Basic Income?
The answer to this question depends upon what you mean by Universal Basic Income?
@scottsantens writes some wonderful stuff about UBI. He is an expert at it and really cuts to the core of all discussions about it. I suggest everyone who wants to learn about this topic read his stuff. From what I can gather, he is a full time advocate for this and, one of the leading voices in the world (and he is right here on STEEM).
Elon Musk summed up this discussion by stating that he thinks this is something that we are going to have to do. He did not get into a debate. Rather, he knows what is coming and there is going to be no choice but to implement a basic income.
And what is coming? A time when tens of millions of jobs are destroyed due to automation.
Keep in mind, Elon is working on a technology, autonomous vehicles, that will destroy tens of millions jobs that entail driving. It is probably a good idea to listen to the guy who is out to destroy the jobs.
Universal Basic Income is a concept that I agree is going need to be implemented. I do not care what name one uses for it, there just are going to be too many people out of work.
The caveat is this is only a temporary measure.
Universal Basic Income, as presented by people like @scottsantens has one major flaw: the government is involved.
This is bad for two reasons:
B) Government Dependency:
I am not going to go into the conspiracy theory stuff about the government controlling everyone with UBI and it being a plot by the Bilderberg Group to further control humanity. While that might be true, there is something more basic. Being dependent upon the government is a bad thing. It is subject to the whims of political winds. As new people are elected, they are always twisting, turning, and reversing course. Even things that are protected as sacred, they will find ways around.
Therefore, using the governmental system as a temporary measure to get started is okay. In the end, we cannot have the world dependent upon these institutions.
B) Blockchain
People often talk about the collapse of fiat currency. A Universal Basic Income is not very effective if the monetary unit it is paid in is almost worthless. I do not imagine a UBI paid in Bolivars would be too effective right now.
The problem with this view is that I heard about it for 30 years. It is not hard to find doom and gloomers who believe the government is collapsing. The debt is too high. There isnt enough tax revenue. Whatever the reason, I do not subscribe to this. I believe they can keep it propped up like they have...for decades. As we saw in the U.S housing crash, they have the wonderful ability to keep things going after a bust. They only need to create more growth and that is coming from debt. The nice part of that, for them, is they can create unlimited debt.
And so the cycle goes.
There is one issue for government and I suggest everyone read @zoidsoft's posts. He writes some great stuff about the prospect government's are facing.
The issue is not the collapse of fiat currency. What is the bigger threat is the destruction of government by blockchain. Over time, we are going to see governments around the world embrace blockchain, just like the banksters are, and that will be their demise. It is the Trojan Horse. As we become more acclimated to this technology, people will expect it. Bear in mind that a great deal what governments do is nothing more than 3rd party verification.
This is why I feel that UBI with government involved is only a temporary measure. Governments will be passe. It might take a couple decades for the full implication of this but it is already starting. Estonia is offering digital citizenship (eCitizenship) online. This is only the first step.
Crypto Basic Income (CBI)
Here we have the ideal solution.
Universal Basic Income has it right in that we need to set a floor on how far people can fall. The present scarcity system is constructed in such a way that more wealth (power) is going into the hands of a few. Less than 100 people have more than half the world's wealth while billions are living under $10 a day.
Technology is only going to increase this since one of the biggest expenses is about to be eliminated. This means the Wall Street crowd will make even more money while tens of millions have no means of income. How does that future strike you?
Crypto Basic Income take the UBI concept and improves upon it. It eliminates the one major drawback, government.
CBI is not under the control of any government. It operates in a decentralized fashion all over the world. Under this idea, people receive tokens as a means for sustenance. For those who need the money, it is an immediate form of help. However, if one is in a position where he or she can accumulate some tokens, it is a wealth building mechanism. Over time, we should see some of the tokens appreciate in value which helps the recipients greatly.
Manna and STEEM
Manna is a solution to this problem. It is a cryptocurrency that operates solely to be distributed to people on a weekly basis. At least look, they have 103K people who are verified to receive the token each week. Their growth rate the last couple months is impressive.
This is a true basic income token since it is given freely. Other than signing up and getting verified, one needs to do nothing. Each week the tokens appear in one's wallet. After that, a person is free to do with then as he or she wants. There are no questions.
Everyone should be supporting this project. To me, it is not an experiment as much as something that NEEDS to succeed. We are under a time constraint here. Automation is progressing each day. There is no slowing it down. As long as people are asleep believing things will be better a year or two or five from now, they are primed for a huge wake up call.
Manna can act as a buffer before that time. It also is going to be a great case example for other projects to follow.
STEEM, on the other hand, is not truly a basic income but I do include it in the CBI cetegory.
It is a utility token that one receives for engaging in what it was designed for. With more applications showing up every week, there are many ways people can go about earning STEEM. Since STEEM is social media, it is no different than what people spent years engaging upon. The main difference is now people can be reward for what they are doing.
My view is anyone who comes onto the STEEM blockchain and puts forth consistent, dedicated action, results will be seen. There are so many ways accounts grow if one participates. STEEM is a compounding mechanism. Everything one does builds upon what went before it. Activities today have an exponential effect down the road. That is how accounts can start to grow at a faster pace.
Everyone on here has the opportunity to make STEEM a basic part of their income stream. It is something that is, quite frankly, going to be needed.
Technological unemployment is a real thing. Crypto Basic Income is the solution.
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