Should we raise social benefits?

[Mich the Tester]

The lowly paid add more to society than the other echelons you describe IMO and are too undervalued. They clean toilets, stack shelves, empty bins, look after the old, etc, and support the highly paid's lifestyle for little remuneration. The wealth gap between the rich and people who work is worrying.

I'm not talking about lowly paid or well paid, I'm talking about ability to contribute.

[Moscow Mule]

I don't think a robot that needed a tulip would be a very good design.

He's still ripped off your head...

[EternalOptimist]

I don't think he's talking about people with low paid jobs, he's talking about people who are too stupid, lazy or flipless to contribute to society in the way you describe.

I agree the widening gap between rich and poor is disturbing. I think labour should be given equal status to capital when it comes to reaping the benefits of human endevour.

Its like the guy who looks at the plebs and see them just lying around all day drinking and chatting while he works hard for his money. He thinks they are fools.
They look at him and think the same for the same reasons

[doodab]

He's still ripped off your head...

Hmm. I see your point. Even a robot with a significant design flaw could usefully contribute to the extermination of the entire human race. There is a metaphor in there somewhere.....

[Mich the Tester]

Its like the guy who looks at the plebs and see them just lying around all day drinking and chatting while he works hard for his money. He thinks they are fools.
They look at him and think the same for the same reasons

I don’t mind people who lay around all day doing nothing. I mind about people who vandalize stuff, beat up people on the streets and piss on the Rabobank cash dispenser in Haarlem just before I go in to get some cash.

[ratewhore]

But in a way those events prove my point. I’m not going to suggest the average Haitian is dumber than the average Chilean because I don't think that's the case, but I would suggest that Chileans have a better education system and their government is a more intellectual elite, whereas in Haiti the government is an elite of force. In Chile, a relatively small number of people have been killed, because the clever people designed houses that can cope with earthquakes and employed the relatively skilled people to build them. In Haiti the clever people enriched themselves but left the rest of the people to rot, living in homes that were not able to withstand an earthquake. Consequence; 100 times as many deaths in Haiti as in Chile. Chile’s economy will recover fairly quickly, Haiti’s won’t, so ultimately the rich people in Haiti have destroyed the basis of their own wealth by neglecting the needs of the many.

I think you may have expanded beyond paying plebs to do fark all.

Someone cleverer than me said 'pay people to be poor and you will never run out of poor people'. Your original post takes this one step further and substitutes 'poor' for 'comfortable'.

[Mich the Tester]

I think you may have expanded beyond paying plebs to do fark all.

Someone cleverer than me said 'pay people to be poor and you will never run out of poor people'. Your original post takes this one step further and substitutes 'poor' for 'comfortable'.

I know. I don’t have the solutions, I have only thoughts, and seeing as I’m not some teenager that thinks he knows everything, I like to test my ideas by sharing those thoughts with others who might offer useful insights.

[EternalOptimist]

I know. I don’t have the solutions, I have only thoughts, and seeing as I’m not some teenager that thinks he knows everything, I like to test my ideas by sharing those thoughts with others who might offer useful insights.

neccessity is the mother of invention

[DimPrawn]

I’ve been thinking, .....[very long post]

Not much to test then?

[Mich the Tester]

Not much to test then?

Easy stuff.