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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   23323 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 24, 2025

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I'm thinking about the culture war around AI, specifically the whole UBI debate. If AI truly does take over a lot of human work, there's a lot of people who are savagely agitating for a UBI on one side, saying we'll be post work. The other side of course says no that's not how it works, besides we aren't even close to being able to afford that. The left (generally) takes the former, while the right generally takes the latter.

What I'm surprised by is why nobody has so far mentioned what, to me, seems the obvious compromise - we just shorten the work week! As our forefathers did forcing a 5 day, 8 hour work week, why don't we continue there? Go down to a 4 day work week, and/or shorten standard working hours to 6 per day?

If AI truly will obviate the need for a lot of work, how is this not the more rational solution than trying to magically create a UBI out of money we don't have? How come this idea has barely even entered the discourse? I have been talking and thinking about AI unemployment for years and never once have heard someone argue for this compromise.

I've argued since at least 2015 that the US government should invest, on the behalf of its citizens, in AI and automation companies. In the event that such automation pans out, each citizen reaps the benefits through his capital stake. This is inherently solvent (there is no promise of continued UBI payments). It would only "pay out" if automation was in fact successful. And it would help unify US citizens, who would feel pride of ownership in their country rather than a beggar for handouts.

Unfortunately, it looks like the time to do this would have been 2015. Genesis not withstanding, OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are in too late a stage to need or desire government investment on behalf of US citizens.

I've argued since at least 2015 that the US government should invest, on the behalf of its citizens, in AI and automation companies.

You don't want a government that can do this. There is no incentive for politicians to do a good job with the investments, and every incentive for them to channel these investments to favored constituencies. You would get stakes in Solyndra, not Nvidia.

And it would help unify US citizens, who would feel pride of ownership in their country rather than a beggar for handouts.

What about modern politics gives you the impression that something as simple as objective truth can cut through partisan affect?

Yes, look at housing. The government made a large investment in banking and housing finance a decade ago that has paid off, but the citizens are very very unlikely to see a tangible benefits from that investment.

Would've been a great idea, but yes far too smart and forward thinking for the U.S. Government to actually implement... sigh.

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