Tim Pool Gives His Take on Universal Basic Income | Joe Rogan

I want to talk to you about universal basic income. What do you think about artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence and automation and the removal of all these jobs is a real concern that a lot of people have and then the the way to mitigate it that's being bandied about is Universal basic income that they would give you a certain amount of money And I think the idea is that everyone would get it even wealthy people would get it Yeah, and that would be the only way to make it fair But where the fuck is that money coming from and then what do you think about it? I don't think it I'm not an economist man, you know, but I don't I don't think it's feasible at least right now I do believe that on a technological level. We will eventually reach like a Star Trek You know kind of future where it's not about communism. It's just literally like we have no scarcity is gone, right? like they have replicators, but when it comes to universal basic income people need to understand some basic economic principles if Everybody gets a thousand dollars. Okay, that's 300 million thousand dollars, right right, but it's not everybody it's everybody of working age, right? Yes So so let's let's let's do this. I do I own I own a burger shop I need to hire someone to flip burgers. So I say we pay ten bucks an hour It's it's not it's not a lot but we're a small business. We can't really afford to pay more is that acceptable? They say I get a thousand bucks a month. Why would I why would I spend you know, if if you know that not really Well, the idea is that the thousand bucks a month that you get you get to keep and then the my times were there more Than ten bucks an hour. Mmm. I don't care What when I was when I when I was 17 18, I worked for American Eagle Airlines I was lifting like 50,000 pounds per day and I was getting ten bucks an hour and if in Jacked No, I was I've been skateboarding my whole life So I was certainly you know in shape But if you gave if you told me hey, you know how you're making less than a thousand bucks a month working full-time after taxes How about we just give you a thousand bucks? I bet I'll be at the skate park. Yeah I'll be up, you know, so there's some positives that people will pursue their passions But hold on how many people do you know want to be comedians and they're not funny? Quite a few quite a few and imagine if you said we're gonna subsidize your endeavor into a thing you're not good at Yeah, how many people are really good at being carpenters, but they wish they'd be pro football players How many people are really good at being teachers but want to be a famous actor? so what do you think would be some sort of an appropriate response to automation and Artificial intelligence. I mean you can't just have millions and millions of people just have nowhere. Yeah, and that's that's a Techno I'd say It's quite this is this is why I you know, I've never been a pot smoker I think I smoked like once in my life. I'll try now. No, uh, it's just not my thing I get but everyone always would think I was stoned because I would talk about this kind of stuff with my friends while they Were stoned the philosophical consequences of technological innovation. Yeah, it is not the postmasters fault that he spent 30 years becoming the best of the best In working at the post office that technology emerged that is going to displace him and make him and put him in the poorhouse When I was about 19 years old I was skateboarding in downtown Chicago and I saw an old black homeless man and I had some leftover food and I was like, hey, what's up, dude? You want some food? He was like, oh, you know, thanks, man And I was just like I got to know can I ask you a question? How did you become homeless and he said? You know what man? He's like, I think he was like 60 something. He said I used to have a job I worked all day every day. I had a family eventually, you know My didn't have kids my friends started get old and move on I lost touch with a lot of them Some of them died and one day I got told that my job wasn't needed anymore And so I couldn't do anything went on unemployment for a little bit But my you know the job I was good at didn't exist, right? I can't remember exactly ways that this is 14 years ago But he was like so everywhere I went I said, you know, I'll do anything I'll do anything but even the small jobs that paid a little bit to flip burgers weren't enough to cover my rent After a few months I got evicted then because I didn't have a place to live I couldn't go to the job. I did have I started sleeping outside and I've been here ever since I'm like that's sad, you know, and that's that's that's a sad reality. What do you do? I don't know AOC But she hooks you up, but that's the thing that she goes too far But this is why I believe in in some kind of social policy and say yeah social security something to help these people Well for sure, you know if we have a real community you would help out the people that are in your community Yes, that's you know, you know communism works really really well when you have like five people, right? Yeah, I try explaining to people they always make this political, you know the political compass authoritarian libertarian left right and They people like to claim that anarchists like the violent smashy ones in Antifa are libertarian left and I'm like no no No, like the libertarian left quadrant are pot smoking hippies live on farms and Arco communism makes a ton of sense When it's you and your buddies working together on a farm sharing responsibilities And does it make sense for a community of you know, 300 million people and you have to trade extremely Specific resources to make a computer happen, right at that point You need to be able to quantify the value of specific objects and that's why communism doesn't work for massive on massive scale but I Will say when? Artificial intelligence a different conversation, you know technological advance and advancement is going to result in like Luddite riots, you know People you know the opioid crisis. Yeah, I could be wrong. I read that there was a connection between unemployment From these factories getting shut down and depressed dudes popping pills there was a masculinity report was published by Harry's the shaving company and they said the The overwhelming majority of what contributes to a man's happiness has gained full employment like like 80% So what happens when a factory shuts down? You got a bunch of young dudes who want to do something? They want to matter but they can't there's no there's nowhere to go anymore, especially in a small town But I'll tell you what man Percocets feel real good. You know those drugs they feel fantastic, but they'll kill you So that's you know, I think this contributes to the popularity of Bernie Sanders and Trump. They talked about the working class I talked about these free trade agreements hurting people They talked about getting the factories back together and that means a lot to people who have been popping pills Who are depressed who are sad and scared and it's a lot of people in this country