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Russians tried it with USSR. Every time new technology is introduced everyone gets scared that jobs go away. Over time the level of service and innovation requirements go up providing more jobs for those that adapt. Such as life. Don't make the world what its not. It most likely won't work. :-)



Russians tried the exact opposite: everyone was required to work in the USSR. You'll get a minor prison sentence for avoiding work (IIRC it was called "went to jail for idleness"). The law was hard to enforce though.

What the blog post describes is, basically, communism. The official communist party line in USSR (correctly) identified the lack of automation (advanced technology) to make it a reality. Basically the official state goal of the Soviet Union was to advance the science and technology towards achieving that goal, hence the repressions against religion, endless attempts to identify and focus "more important" sciences and skip "less important" ones, introduction of pyatiletkas (5 year plans), etc.


Can you tell me more about basic income in the USSR? The wikipedia page on basic income doesn't mention it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income_guarantee#Examples...


Basically the government guaranteed to get you a job with a basic income. All seemed like a good idea "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need" until folks realized that the people deciding basically were the ruling class and the working class now worked out of fear of Gulag instead of financial rewards.


That is _not_ what Basic Income is. That's full employment. Totally different.




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