Nickolaus Hines, a writer based in New York City, has published a new article on automation and basic income in Inverse, a year-old website concentrating on tech news. (This is not Hines’ first article for the site on the topic; in July, he wrote a piece on the White House roundtable discussion with Martin Ford and Robin Chase.)

Despite the article’s title, Hines does not focus exclusively on the modern issue of automation; he also takes some time to look back at the movement for guaranteed income in the 1960s and 1970s. In doing so, he clarifies an often elided distinction between the then-popular guaranteed income and “basic income” as it is often discussed today (including as it is defined by BIEN):

“Nixon, King, and others were championing a guaranteed income, however, not a universal income. Government funds would be allocated only to the working poor, not every man, woman, and child.”

Hines draws upon interviews with two American BIEN members named ‘Michael’: Michael Howard (Professor at the University of Maine, coeditor of Basic Income Studies and organizer of BIEN’s US affiliate) and Michael Lewis (Associate Professor at CUNY).

Among other topics, the article touches upon the question of how worries about automation might help to push America towards a basic income. According to Lewis:

For a country that is so committed to work ethic, the only way to convince people that a basic income is necessary is if they are convinced that people can’t find work. If it’s going to happen, automation is going to bring it about.

Read the full article here:

Nickolaus Hines, “Robots Could Make Basic Income a Necessity“, Inverse; Aug 11, 2016.

Photo CC BY-ND 2.0 Jeff