How would a future economy work in the future when most jobs are automated away by robots and Computers running complex AI? Some jobs obviously cannot be automated away but obviously those jobs cannot be filled be everyone. ie: There are only so many Plumbers,etc.. needed in a community. So how would it function? If people are not collecting a paycheck and cannot borrow how will the goods and services be sold? How would the owners of the Robots/computers generating all the economic output make money?
That's a good question, and I think there isn't an answer for it know. The problems are usually solved when they arise, not before.
I see guaranteed basic income becoming a reality at some point in order to avoid social chaos. The world is kinda headed towards more socialism anyway. For motivated people (the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates of the world of whom money is a secondary consideration to creating something great), this could actually be a good thing as they will be able to take more risks and spend more time working on moonshot projects. But for most people, they'd probably just sit around and do less of benefit to society.
Personally, I see some sort of UBI being phased in along with automation. You don't want it too high to start or you'll overdo it on job loss. Enough to keep people alive and consuming but not enough to abandon all paid labor entirely. I feel like it has appeal across the broad spectrum: Conservative: Eliminate administrative bloat from current welfare setup, since there's no qualification. Eliminate minimum wage, since the minimum standard of living is handled otherwise. Liberal: Improve welfare to not be a qualification-based trap; all qualify, always, so there is never a disincentive to make more money. Improves wealth gap, addresses poverty. Implementation wise, the easiest solution would be a negative flat income tax, but that would involve a difficult overhaul of the tax system. Otherwise, taking the idea of social security but all citizens receive a dividend, financed by progressive taxation.
We'll probably see rioting (ala Uber in 3rd world countries). I mean, we see the vitriol from outsourcing already. But then again, maybe not, latest labor pick by this administration favors keeping wages low so it could still be cost effective to maintain a share cropper-like economy.
But UBI means someone has to give money away to someone who is not producing anything of value. They are sending jobs overseas and automating jobs so they do not have to pay someone to produce. The last thing they are going to do is pay someone to produce nothing. I do not see UBI happening. I suspect their solution to the problem would not be UBI but euthanasia and severe population control to get rid of the surplus population to a manageable size. You cannot have a country with 300 million people but only 30 million employed. I wonder if the people at the top are even planning for the eventual jobless future and how to manage the risk of 90% of the population becoming unruly.
What will the robots be making? Better question, What could we make with robots that we are not already making? We don't yet know what robots will be making, we've never had a workforce with their capabilities.
90% of the jobs have been replaced by technology many times over... started with the wheel, then the assembly line, and the printing press...