The AI problem. Do you have the solution? The most powerful machine humans ever have created

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of their leaders..
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There is a problem coming at us like a roaring freight train — no, more like a rocket. It is expressed in this article from the June 10, 2017, issue of NewScientist Magazine.

Excerpts:

AI will be able to beat us at everything by 2060, say experts

According to a survey of more than 350 people developing artificial intelligence, there is a 50 per cent chance that machines will outperform humans in all tasks within 45 years.

AI is predicted to be better than us at translating languages by 2024, writing high-school essays by 2026, driving a truck by 2027, working in retail by 2031, writing a bestselling book by 2049 and surgery by 2053.

In fact, all human jobs will be automated within the next 120 years, say the respondents.

The survey, by the University of Oxford and Yale University, took the views of AI researchers around the world.

O.K., there is the problem.  Machines will do everything better than you can. What is your solution?

MMT’s (Modern Monetary Theory) so-called “solution” is for the government somehow to find or create (which of the two, never is clear) a below-minimum-wage job to everyone who wants one. They call it “JG” (Jobs Guarantee).

We already have discussed the many reasons why JG cannot work, even in today’s environment.  These reasons involve location, transportation, skills, salary, benefits, supervision, and effects on current workers.

You can click the link (above) to see the discussions.

Now, consider what would happen to JG in the future jobs environment described by the above article. Imagine a government agency frantically trying to find (or to create) jobs, when fewer and fewer jobs are needed.

It would be like offering a shovel to a desert wanderer, nearly dead of thirst, so he could dig for water, when you simply could give him a guaranteed, unlimited supply of water.

Who has the solution to the impending job shortage?

Surely not the Republicans, whose main interest is in punishing the poor for being “lazy,” and “takers,” rather than in helping them.  Cuts to Medicaid and other social spending are embedded in the fabric of the right-wing philosophy.

Not even the Democrats, who make loud noises about helping the poor, but then agree with the Republicans about “the Big Lie” — the lie that federal taxpayers fund federal spending.

Barack Obama’s Social Security cuts and Bernie Sanders’s attempts to “pay for” Medicare via current taxes provide examples of the Big Lie.

The reality is this:

1. As machines become ever more adept at doing the jobs people traditionally have done, fewer people will be able to find jobs.
2. But all people still will want food, clothing, housing, entertainment, health care, and other mental and physical comforts.
3. In the far-distant future, machines might provide all these human needs free of charge. But until then, they will have to be paid for.
4. Someone will need to pay for these human needs, when fewer people will be able to find jobs.
5. The only entity in America with the unlimited ability to pay for anything is the Monetarily Sovereign U.S. government.

Being Monetarily Sovereign, the federal government uniquely cannot run short of dollars.  Even if all federal tax collections totaled $0, the U.S. federal government could continue spending, forever.

The only logical conclusion is that the Monetarily Sovereign, U.S. government (and all other Monetarily Sovereign governments) will have to step in and provide the people with more money and more benefits. 

Humans evolved big brains, and our using our big brains allowed us to adapt to change better than any other animal. We continually have created labor-saving, life-improving machines. It was via our machines — first, hand axes, then increasingly more sophisticated machines — that we separated ourselves from the rest of the species.

It was via our machines — first, hand axes, then increasingly more sophisticated machines — that we separated ourselves from the rest of the species.

Though our machines reduced the need for hand labor, they didn’t eliminate the need for all labor. Instead, they created more consumer needs and these additional needs created more, less-physical jobs.

Until now.

With Artificial Intelligence, and especially with machine learning, machines not only can do more physical work, faster and more efficiently, but they can think, remember, imagine, communicate and learn.

For any given job, no matter how great the intellectual requirement, we will create machines that can do it better than humans.

So, what will become of us?

Our solution is not to create more jobs for human hands.  Our solution is to utilize the Monetarily Sovereign governments our big brains have created.

We now must leave behind the old notions of nobility in sweat labor and dirt under the fingernails, and adapt to our newest machine, the most powerful machine humans ever have created: A Monetarily Sovereign government.

This machine, like all machines, must be used properly, as it can be used for good or for evil. 

But, if the same big brains that were smart enough to invent Monetary Sovereignty, also are smart enough to master Monetary Sovereignty, this greatest of all machines can help us create all we need and all we want.

We have but to understand which buttons to push and levers to pull.

I suggest we begin with the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below).

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.

Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:
1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA )
Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons:
*FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and
*The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All )
This article addresses the questions:
*Does the economy benefit when the rich can afford better health care than can the rest of Americans?
*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”
*How much would it cost taxpayers?
*Who opposes it?”
3. PROVIDE A MONTHLY ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA (similar to Social Security for All) (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB (Economic Bonus)) Or institute a reverse income tax.
This article is the fifth in a series about direct financial assistance to Americans:

Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea. Sunday, Jan 1 2012
MMT’s Job Guarantee (JG) — “Another crazy, rightwing, Austrian nutjob?” Thursday, Jan 12 2012
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee is like the EU’s euro: A beloved solution to the wrong problem. Tuesday, May 29 2012
“You can’t fire me. I’m on JG” Saturday, Jun 2 2012

Economic growth should include the “bottom” 99.9%, not just the .1%, the only question being, how best to accomplish that. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) favors giving everyone a job. Monetary Sovereignty (MS) favors giving everyone money. The five articles describe the pros and cons of each approach.
4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONE Five reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefitting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL
Even were schooling to be completely free, many young people cannot attend, because they and their families cannot afford to support non-workers. In a foundering boat, everyone needs to bail, and no one can take time off for study.
If a young person’s “job” is to learn and be productive, he/she should be paid to do that job, especially since that job is one of America’s most important.
6. ELIMINATE FEDERAL TAXES ON BUSINESS
Businesses are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the federal government (the later having no use for those dollars). Any tax on businesses reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all business taxes reduce your personal income.
7. INCREASE THE STANDARD INCOME TAX DEDUCTION, ANNUALLY. (Refer to this.) Federal taxes punish taxpayers and harm the economy. The federal government has no need for those punishing and harmful tax dollars. There are several ways to reduce taxes, and we should evaluate and choose the most progressive approaches.
Cutting FICA and business taxes would be a good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.
8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)
There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.
But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.
9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)
Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.
10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.
Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY