James MagazineJames_July-August_2026_web - Flipbook - Page 20
Affordability is only the first
argument against a universal basic
income. People are built to work.
Without work, they get into trouble, deteriorate or go mad. Possibly
all three.
The United Kingdom, which
has many programs for the unemployed, is something of a laboratory
on how not to help the jobless. A lot
of people there simply haven’t tried
working in a long time.
Collectively, UK social assistance programs are known as
“benefits” and extend well beyond
a substitute for a paycheck. They
take care of everything from assisting with rent to, in some cases,
assisting with entertainment.
My experience in interviewing and just knowing people who
haven’t worked for a long time is
that they are rootless, critical of
the system that supports them and
inclined to take drugs, drink or fall
victim to mental illness. Instead
of state subsidies, we will likely
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AI isn’t a subject
being debated,
let alone eliciting
new ideas.
AI won’t wait.
see the gig economy boom— and
it should be helped— and human
creativity will flourish with it.
For that to happen, the political
leadership, Democratic or Republican, needs to catch up with the
fact that we may be entering into a
new economic order where the old
idea of employment is reduced, and
waves of individual entrepreneurs
are unleashed, doing everything
from, say, creating new musical instruments to designing new homes
from waste products, to restoring
forests without uniformity.
Omar Hatamleh, who has
written five books on the subject,
says the challenge of AI is that it’s
exponential and we think linearly.
My hope is that the AI upheaval
will inadvertently convert us from
linear to exponential thinkers.
The political class has been notably missing from the AI fray aside
from mumbling about regulating
AI, which won’t help job creation.
It seems that making gig work
easier and safer might be a good
beginning. All the indications are
that more of us will be working for
ourselves going forward. The gig
worker ought to be able to easily
purchase Social Security insurance
and access its benefits, including
retirement.
It’s a new time for the human
race. It would be nice to feel that
politicians were aware of it. We
are in a political year, and AI isn’t
a subject being debated, let alone
eliciting new ideas. AI won’t wait.
Llewellyn King is the executive producer/host
of “White House Chronicle,” a public affairs
program airing on PBS and PEG stations.
