Yanis Varoufakis Basic Income is a Necessity (subtitulos espanol)

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our final keynote speaker needs no introduction to this audience professor
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dr. Jana summer a focus was the Greek Minister of Finance in 2015 he's a
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leading participants and current debates on the global and European financial
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crisis he is an author and professor he's authored the global minutes are
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several academic articles on game theory and economics he's a professor of
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economic theory at the University of Athens and holds visiting professorships
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at the Universities of Texas and Stockholm please please give 'em very
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warm welcome to our final keynote speaker of the day mister minister
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Yiannis faraha
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well thank you so much for one welcome it's one of the beer because basically
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is a necessity I'm going to actually argue that this is not a question of
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whether we like it or not it will be a major part of any attempt to civilize
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capitalism as capitalism is going through a spasm caused by its own
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generation of technologies that undermine itself to put it simply in the
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20 century we had the stabilisation and simulation of capitalism through the
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rise of social democracy new deeply new deal in the United States democratic
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social market developments in Europe unfortunately this social democratic New
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Deal paradigm is finished and you can not be devised actual make some comments
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on this but first let me let us remind ourselves of what the social-democratic
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New Deal tradition tradition is all about
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about two things firstly redistribution of income with the wage labor a kind of
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insurance for the working class working class ensuring the wedding plus take for
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instance the National Insurance Contributions scheme in Britain after
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the second world war unemployment insurance in the United States working
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wage laborers have faced effectively providing insurance payments to those
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out of a job
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seeing with health provision pensions those wedding today providing for the
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pensions of those who have stopped working so insurance and redistribution
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within the working class to put it bluntly the second dimension of course
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is redistribution between capital and labor between the rents and labor this
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takes the form of minimum wages that are negotiated by the state it's also
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process of collective bargaining user usually triangular involving trade
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unions employers and the state and of course taxation transfers through the
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taxation now this social democratic tradition I made a very big statement a
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moment ago today is dead in the water and it is dead in the water or dying in
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the water for two reasons for reasons that have to do with two earthquakes
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that if he'd our societies on both sides of the Atlantic one is the process of
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Finance financialization which created a huge wedge between capital and labor it
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created a new form of capital financial ice capital that essentially depleted
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the energy of both labor and in depth and he's inexorable financialization Dr
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headed comeuppance in 2008 @ ever since you remember after 1991 socialism died
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with the collapse of the Soviet Union and then after 2008 capitals date we
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have a new regime now I gotta go bankrupt accuracy its rule by the bank
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the banks the more bankrupt the bank the greatest capacity to mobilize and you
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see economic grants comic value from the rest of society and that's the problem
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with Bank of democracy the fact that for six years now we have a cynical massive
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transfer of wealth of income of value from production towards the financial
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eyes financial sector that the remains insolvent in reality despite this
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synagogue the problem with it is that it is created two things firstly
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deflationary forces ask anyone working in a sentimental switzerland today or in
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the Buddhist monk
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on the European Central Bank the Bank of Japan the Bank of England or the Fed
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becomes sleep at night because of the the fact that about half of the global
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economy now is languishing in negative interest rate that this is a reflection
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of the collapse of the Social Democratic New Deal bargain contract if you want
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of the twentieth century and that collapse happened in 2008 the world
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after 2008 cannot be understood anymore in terms of made sense before 2008 just
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like the world after 1929 would not be made sense off in terms that make sense
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in the Gold Exchange standard era but I had a 1929 the second reason with the
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deflationary process we have now the first blank of the social democratic
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tradition is that in the water because the working class can no longer insuring
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it
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stagnant wages the fact that youngsters are caught up in a dual labor market and
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they find it very difficult about Switzerland of course now but I'm
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talking about the rest of the developed world so easily successful only because
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it's only one of them and nobody else can be like but that's another
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discussion the fact remains that the first black the usual as amongst wage
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laborers is simply not possible because wage wages have stagnated such an extent
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that it is impossible for the wedding last in shorts and a second plant blank
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the redistribution between capital and labor is becoming increasingly
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impossible for two reasons first the politics that has become quite toxic
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just look at what's happening the negotiations between Greece and the
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troika within the European Union at the moment in the United States where you've
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got a congress be doing at the white house in a white house redoing the
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congress this distribution between capital and labor that was part and
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parcel of the new deal in social democracy
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required political governance Europe and the United States around governor as we
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speak at the leak completely on government and so that's the first that
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the second half way has to do this is nothing new I'm sure has been discussed
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their everyday a glimpse of this discussion
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let me put it very bluntly in science fiction terms their eyes of the machines
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artificial intelligence will consume very very soon is already doing it all
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the repetitive routine work or algorithmic work is going to be replaced
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especially the moment machines pass the Turing test and it is impossible for you
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and I do understand when we speak to some of the other phone where they were
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speaking to him sooner or to human person once we have that women have a
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massive displacement effect which for the first time in human history is going
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to overwhelm the creation of more job destruction than job creation remember
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that the bankrupt agree that they have referred to came at the tail end of a
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thirty-year period of replacement or manufacturing jobs in the developing
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world with low-wage in a bit of work employment rate swings in Britain
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speaker comes from employment rates are quite high in Britain and the white
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house in the United States but the bulk of those jobs that were created to leads
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to replace the jobs that were lost after 2008 after 1975 and 1983 low-wage jobs
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that ones that would be called immediately the moment artificial
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intelligence overcomes the test and we are facing a major issue there
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to link it with what I was saying before this displacement is going to reinforce
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the deflation reprocess the keep our central bankers awake at night because
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it will eliminate a significant measure of aggregate demand it will create an
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even greater level of income inequality and primarily disparity between savings
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in the end is this battle between savings and investment will force the
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price of money the rate of interest even below the current low low levels so this
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is why I'm saying the basic income is going to be an essential part of a
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necessary part of any attempt to stabilize I D and to civilized I don't
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need to decide to do I define basic income let me just say that this travel
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we are going to have to carry hearts and minds will be an ethical and unethical
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under dozen simply putting out of opposition from the heads but also from
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opposition from the have nots from such a democrat from leftists from those who
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whose own sense of dignity response against naturally the idea of something
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this is why it's important to couch facing come as what it is it is the idea
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that and allow me to not aided in broadens we are going to overturn the
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current narrative on life under capital the current narrative the dominant
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paradigm is what that we have private production of wealth which is then
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appropriated by the state for social purposes in reality our production
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is correct it is often and it is only then privately appropriate unless we
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make the shift in an hour we're not going to be able to succeed to convince
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even those who will benefit from basic income that it is worthwhile struggling
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for it
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dagen iPhone and pick it up and it will do you find it
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you find a variety of technologies each one of them was created by some
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government grant none of them was produced by Apple nothing was refused by
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Google none of them were produced with was produced by Facebook they were all
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produced bike down some government grant this is what I'm saying about his way
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I'm adding to the collective production of wealth which is then privately
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appropriated if you start thinking of it that way then it's very easy to start
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thinking of basic income as it didn't a dividend of those to the collective that
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was responsible for collectively producing the wealth and the gadgets and
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a product and the markets because this forced separation using a separation
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between the market and the state needs to be dissolved there would have been no
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markets if there were no states that we have no capitalism if it was not a state
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that would be doable no Google if it was not state and similarly there will be no
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state if they were no private entrepreneurs it would be no state is
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there were no private firms we need to resolve this false division and we have
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to attack the narrative head on basic income is about giving money to the
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undeserving it is about giving money to the rich it is about giving money to the
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surface the beach bums the ones that we did like the ones that we would not like
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to be our children and who if they were true then we will we will be scolding
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them so we must not side the track be sidetracked by simply talking about good
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people getting money that they deserve
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talk about undeserving people
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that get money courtesy of the fact that they are members of a society that is
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collectively producing wealth and then on top of this we need to add the
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narrative of stabilization think about in Europe today in the United States had
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a basis income would really help central bankers go to sleep at night it will be
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counted inflationary it will be a unique defense against the slow-burning
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recessionary impact of 2008
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now there are a decent argument against basic
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that we must not avoid some of you may say to you yes but they do not need a
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basic a basic income well sure but they don't they don't need to have the first
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10,000 Swiss francs they make being tax-exempt either nobody's worried about
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that surely we hear being said it's better to target the money that society
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has on those who are deserving well yes but you have to think of the other side
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of the story due to separate the deserving from the undeserving you need
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to bureaucracy whose purpose is doodle at that bureaucracy tends to replicate
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itself bureaucrats love to reproduce themselves and to reproduce their power
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over society and to do so by creating a stigma attached to those whom they
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considered to be undeserving it is very similar to psychiatry the moment he
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introduced a three-member Michelle and the story about the madhouse you create
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an additive original reason power structure the person who has the
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certificate to be this psychiatrist decides Hussain who has the right to be
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free citizen
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the other argument which i think is also one that needs to be confronted is that
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people should have a right to a job not a ride to basic income and ugly should
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be promoting work not schloss well I think that there are two points here
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that need to be made when physically nothing stops us as a society
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century those who are idle why should we have them stuff I know that my kids
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where I'd like I would be centering them but they will not be throwing them out
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secondly and more importantly there I'd to turn down a job is essential for a
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well-functioning labor market and for a civilized society and have that I a
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genuine right to turn down a job you must have an alternative and outside
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option because desperate beagle
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accepted do desperate things I heard somebody here today are you talking
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cleaner whose job is not respected whose name is not known I have a story to tell
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about that works in a number of universities and I remembered in the old
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days where cleaners at work for the university and they were like my boss
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they would come into my office and they will they will know my family they would
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know about my wife they would not about me that would tell me off that would say
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the 8 o'clock at night got your wife what are you doing
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yeah and they had a sense of belonging to an institution and being
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institutional important and what happened we subcontracted the labor to
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firms that hire by night people that are faceless were turned over all the time
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but less were not institutionally connected to the place where this is the
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University the National Gallery in London and so on and so forth and there
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is but why did this process spin out of control it did because the cleaners had
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no us outside option no right to say no to the subcontracted contact
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now just so that we do not face only the negative arguments let me just before I
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conclude that opened this after discussion let me mention what I think
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essential aspects from a social perspective not just from a
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macroeconomic perspective it is important to state the macroeconomic
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case will be stabilizing the financial markets investment of an unlikely but
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there are others at the level of the micro and sociological
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democracy put forward the idea of a social safety net
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remember that well we need to counter this let's have a good for catching you
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when you're fully but when you're caught in it some time to get out of them
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sometimes very easy to be trumped think of basic income as a foundation set a
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floor on which to stand solidly and to be able to reach for the sky
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exploitation libertarian economists political ghana's political game that
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liberty is a driving force define liberty on in a negative sense in the
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sense of the absence of constants of volunteerism if you said yes to some
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contract that contract must by definition be free
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contract therefore it must be some act of free will
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well it's not the Mafia loves to give us options that we can't refuse to make us
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offers to choose the fact that we say yes to them doesn't mean that they were
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chosen free the fact that the government accepted the terms last summer of the
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driver does not mean that was a voluntary transaction to have a three
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contract to have a contract that he signed by both sides
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presenting and exuding the freedom of both sides each side must have a
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capacity to say no I said that before I'm saying this once more in his
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innocence freedom in action requires it basic income finally again beyond the
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macroeconomic will allow for creative work to replace the kind of routine
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algorithmic work which is anyway being displaced by artificial intelligence so
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even want to ameliorate for the ill effects of capitalism undermining its
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producing gadgets that itself cannot survive then we need to create a system
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whereby society stakes a claim to the returns to aggregate capital and this
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claim becomes an income stream that goes to everyone I don't see why my children
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and your children have an idea trust fund why Paris Hilton has a right to die
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a trust fund when nobody else will very few people do singles basis in get basic
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income as a trust fund for all of our children to be financed by dividends
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from aggregate capital which was after all created collectively thank you
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questions so R here
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technology and politics do you think is it an unfortunate coincidence or is it
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related I had a holistic approach organic of course there is the reason
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why we've had the financialization drive of the nineteen eighties nineties and
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the thousands which led us to where we are today has a lot to do with
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technological change and this technological change now with 3d
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printers and machines that can replace human intelligence at the level of the
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service sector is going to be in a vicious feedback effect with the effects
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of the combustion of financial capital so the answer is utterly interwoven
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interconnected interrelate
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iraq to be a little bit more radical and that is my question you said the reason
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for the existence of a basic income in conditioner basic income is income in
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any case it in the context of civilization of today is to do comes
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from a collective labor that is organized by state investment in R&D
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technologist come from the relationship between the public property in private
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property with my dad equality says I think that the new tools to grow their
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own technological transformation change the structure is a way your
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virtualization reproducing of wells that means a very slogan way we can say that
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life itself is put into labor
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indisputably the radio but I really be the last sentence to life our life yes
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he's put into labor into radio the reason exploitation of life it's sort of
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subsection of lives it's gonna be home visit classical substitution between
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real former subsection Maxon terms it is a new wave of labor organization
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liberalization so I think that the baby is a good cultural shift is it we need
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to do is to consider basic income as a sort of a remuneration of productive
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life not only part of social security and soul so I think that there is
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something that you go behind it affects there is a collective work some more
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things it is very useful to stress about this topic just to give golfing to the
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geological geophysical I don't see why we disagree I don't see why we disagree
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or agree it is better to put it in my daughter to talk in terms of visiting is
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a sort of a remuneration thanks to win the way I
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I prefer to say is that we eat gives us an opportunity to reconsider the notion
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that wealth is privately produced and collectively appropriated when the
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reality is exactly the opposite and now with maintenance take Google they have
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imposed take all the value creation by users the complete breakdown of the
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distinction between consumer and worker so all these corporations are have huge
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input from their own customers their customers value and then they are being
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turned into father which has been sold to advertisers for vital to return
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exchange value to be done directly to these corporations and exclusive users
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global corporations especially given that these corporations baby hadn't tax
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so basic income is a very simple way of ensuring that those who produce the
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valujet a larger share of their thank you very much I have a customer has kind
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of been bothering me all day concerning what you called the second earthquake or
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the rise of the machines what about those jobs that are not being displayed
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by our technological development but kind of evolving parallel to a bike
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that's a digital sweatshops in the Philippines or i click working so I feel
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like both some kind of myth that technological innovation is gonna
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replace everything but isn't there also a job sector in New suck job sector
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evolving where humans are you doing rather machining work to train
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algorithms to cloak to do Facebook censorship but actually requires Sherman
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work but every technological innovation
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displaces jobs and create jobs what we're facing now is the first time in
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the first moment in history where they was that are are about to be displaced
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are far more numerous to the ones that work which are being created in the US
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were being created a much much lower level jobs in any more badly immunity to
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it than the ones that are being destroyed so yes right here right there
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high C celebrates the question of course is tangential to universal PCI in combat
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on your experience in government would you think the role of the state should
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be in the transition to the each of automation and the digital economy and
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how the state tries to reorient e skills agenda at present we have many countries
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in Europe apprenticeship and scales agenda which actually embed the
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structural weaknesses so how do you think she can perform a rule and
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preparing the labor force automation that's a good question I don't I don't
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have an answer to these Andrea we certainly need the state to guide the
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process of not so much human capital formation but the formation of the body
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of difficult knowledge which is necessary to the problem is that we have
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an educational system in an apprenticeship system that creates human
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capital of a lowbrow right both universities and we are jumping down
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education system we are creating incentives for students to study that
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which they're not good at and which is going to by the time they graduate will
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be relevant anyway for instance by ensuring that they leave universities
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with a great amount of debt we are pushing them at the age of 18 19 to make
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choices as to what they study on the basis of their own conception of what is
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repetitive which firstly doesn't prove to be a look at it and secondly which
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forces them to do things that they're not good at and therefore depletes the
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overall effect of Education Society regarding apprenticeships I think that
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look in britain today even if fantastic apprenticeship system is not going to
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work because of the level of investment solo so what jobs with these apprentices
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get to say that you know the supply side story that if you could lead to good
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advantage is good industries going to move to Britain is at its finest guys
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material the level of investment is very low and it's not just in Britain I am
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appalled by the statistics of Britain's that in Germany the most successful
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European state economy we have the highest level of savings in the history
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of Germany and the lowest level of investment since 1945 so unless you have
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together and invest in aggregate investment policy and educational
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settings and training set said things that are in sync with investment you're
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going to fail as a site and
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thank you very much a really interesting talk I just want a sort of push you a
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little bit further maybe get some reflection cause I completely agree that
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being able to say no to a job is a requirement but I also think the next
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step needs to be there needs to be some kind of system that helps people figure
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out what they want to walk towards what is it you want a self actualized that
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was wondering do you have any ideas if we introduce a basic income what other
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systems that the state should the state introduced in order to help people
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figure out in the process I don't agree with you on this you know i mean I'm not
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made
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don't confuse me for a statist I don't want to stay to tell me what I should be
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aspiring to I don't want the state to Delmas my daughter what you should be
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become when she grows up indeed I have very little time for all these
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professional orientation schemes whether their state or private you know
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especially when they did they take thirteen year olds at school and they
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give them these silly surveys and Delhomme you will become an engineer
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you'll be able and you're going to be a musician this is all I have a very deep
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belief in the capacity of human minds to work things out for themselves if they
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don't have to live in terror that is amazing
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let's please give a warm thank you