- The idea that robots have somehow taken our jobs and we have a surplus of labor is nonsense. A surplus is when you have too much of something. In the US, we have a situation of too little labor; houses are dirty because maids are expensive, professional women quit the workforce because they can't afford child care, and high skill individuals spend lots of time on household labor they don't enjoy. Robots didn't take our jobs.
A bit breathless, but good for perspective. The Grumpy Economist has background on the chart.
I imagine trying to get the world to a condition where some unemployed person can offer to drive you to work for 20 minutes, be paid five dollars, and then nothing else bad happens to them. They don't have their unemployment insurance phased out, have to register for a business license, lose their Medicare, be audited, have their lawyer certify compliance with OSHA rules, or whatever. They just have an added $5.
Isn't India such a place where you can bust your butt for that $5 over and over because there is not a safety net that will supply you with the needs to survive? Doesn't OSHA also make sure that desperate individuals aren't required to unreasonably trade their safety for that extra $5 as they may need to work for an unlicensed employer that chooses to operate outside of legal business boundaries? Isn't Uber a version of the $5 situation?
It's an interesting approach. The "needs to survive" are not very expensive.India also has a safety net - the Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
Eliezer "Harry Potter fanfiction" Yudkowsky is famous enough to get interviewed by a magazine?