32 CAMPUS LIFE House GOP fails to ma UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME OFFERS COLUMN
SOLUTION TO FUTURE AUTOMATION By Sam Groves
Daily Texan Senior Columnist @samgroves
By CUILLIN CHASTAIN-HOWLEY Daily Texan Columnist Originally Published On February 8, 2017
Automation of thousands of jobs will eventually cause an epidemic of unemployment. We must brace for this future now and take the steps necessary to prevent it. Universal basic income is the most obvious solution to this problem. The idea of guaranteeing a certain income for every member of a society isn’t a new one. Bertrand Russell floated the idea in 1918, and numerous other intellectuals have endorsed it since. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman sees it as the
only possible solution to America’s growing inequality.
Of course, UBI has a massive hill to climb — the American primal hostility toward socialism. What has to be made clear is that there’s nothing to be afraid of — UBI has already had limited trials to positive results. In South Africa, unconditional income was given to mothers as child support and it greatly improved child nutrition. It’s also been shown that impoverished people who receive unconditional income don’t use it on drugs or alcohol. While UBI has yet to be instituted on a grand scale, it’s been shown to have a positive effect on the most vulnerable members of society.
How does one make the Environmental Pro-
The last time the U.S. instituted socialist tection Agency great again? Rep. Lamar Smith, policies on athe large scaleCommittee was in response to who chairs House on Science, the Great when Space andDepression, Technology — andunemployrepresents parts ment rose including to 25 percent. To prevent this to of Austin West Campus — sought from happening again, answer that question onAmericans Tuesday in must a hearing confront a scary reality — the appropriately titled “Making EPAAmerican Great Again.” But you might find his solution For a bit the perplexing: dream isn’t realistic anymore. vast It involves soliciting guidance from the very majority of Americans, where you start is industries the EPA is meant to regulate, financially where you’ll stay. Studies have even shown crippling the agency and turning it into aasmouththat downward mobility is growing piece of the last major bastion of climate change stagnating wages and student debt ensures denial in the world: the Republican Party. that millennials will earn 20 percent less Smith is likely to revive the Secret Science than the Act, babywhich boomers Reform woulddid. bar the EPA from enacting regulations backed by raw data that isn’t
its provisions would cost $250 million annuall to implement over the next few years but it onl affords the EPA an additional $1 million to carr out those provisions. So in addition to weaken ing its regulatory capacity, Smith’s bill is also de are a reality right now, and when they are signed to put the agency in a financial bind. mass produced they’ll quickly become a Maybe that’s why the bill is so popular with more cost-effective taxi and industries that oftenalternative run afoul oftopublic health truck drivers.Jeffrey Up toHolmstead, 45 percenta of regulations. coaljobs compan could be automated using currently lobbyist, called the reforms included inavailthe Se able according and to McKinsey crettechnology, Science Act “important meaningful”&in his testimony before the committee on Tuesday Company. adding that “when regulations impose billions o on consumers and is surel Ifdollars this trend continues —businesses, and it willit — appropriate for the government to … ensure society as we know it will become un- tha the scientific information to support recognizable. It’s up to usused whether it canthos regulations can be publicly available.” Holmstead be a chaotic transformation or an amicable was one of three witnesses called by the Repub one. We need a solution to the epidemic lican majority to testify during the hearing. A ofthree unemployment that will sweep the were associated with fossil fuel or chemica country in just a few decades. Unfortuinterest groups. nately, the onlythis sensible solution is oneSmith Of course, is all part of Lamar that have traditionally warAmericans on established science as chair ofbeen the Hous Science averse to:Committee. socialism.During the hearing, he als cited a Daily Mail article about Dr. John Bates a so-calledwe whistleblower usedasto work a Hopefully won’t needwho a crisis National Oceanic and Atmospheric catastrophic as the Great DepressionAdmin to istration now claims scientists of at th get peopleand to accept UBI.that Acceptance agency manipulated data in a 2015 study abou socialism and socialist policy has been climate change. The findings of that study hav growing for years, and it must continue been independently verified by numerous othe
This will available. only get Ostensibly worse as automation will publicly meant to increase replace hundreds of is professions. Simple transparency, the bill actually an effort to keep jobs like cashiers anditsretail workers, who are the EPA from doing job. EPA regulations often based on public health data,workers, which must account for 3.5 and 4.6 million remain private includes the personrespectively, arebecause already itbeing replaced. al medical records of individual Americans. Huge department stores are struggling So banningwith regulations on such private tobycompete online based retailers as data, Smith’ s bill cripples the EPA’ s ability to Amazon. Jobs will be created by theseprotect public health. online retailers, such as warehouse jobs, Moreover, a Congressional Budget Office but they’ll pale2015 in comparison jobsthat analysis of the version of thetobillthe found lost at thousands of brick and mortar to grow for a smooth transition into our shops. If your job is related to driving, you post-work future. should be scared too. Self-driving cars COLUMN
Infographic by Liza Anderson | Daily Texan Staff