Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c78IR // #c78Synthesis

Many of them have proposed the same simple solution: give people money.

— In our words · Source: The Second Machine Age (Erik Brynjolfsson & Andrew McAfee)

[Use when]

When the conversation turns to what happens if the jobs don't come back.

[Why it matters]

The authors' long-term answer to spread: basic income — an equal yearly payment, no means testing — with a lineage from Thomas Paine to MLK, as the way to share the bounty when labor alone can't.

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