Interesting Links for 25-01-2023

[andrewducker]

1. CNET's AI journalist is an error-prone plagiarist

(tags:journalism ai plagiarism )

2. LA's Grand Experiment in UBI (turns out giving money to people in poverty is really helpful)

(tags:GuaranteedIncome poverty USA )

3. The Netflix co-CEO says Netflix has "never canceled a successful show"

(tags:netflix business tv viaSwampers )

4. Why South Africa is siding with Russia

(tags:Russia southafrica )

5. Wagner loses up to 80% of prison recruits amid reports of Putin rift

(tags:Russia Ukraine war prison )

6. Ukraine announces purge of top officials over corruption and bribery allegations

(tags:corruption Ukraine )

7. NVidia will make it look like you're staring directly at the camera. That won't feel creepy at all!

(tags:nvidia eyes )

8. "Macroeconomic Changes Have Made It Impossible for Me to Want to Pay You"

(tags:satire business employment unemployment redundancy )

9. The UK is awful for investing in itself. And it's even worse in the North

(tags:uk investment OhForFucksSake )

Comments

Also: about Item 2 on today's list?

[dewline]

The further evidence from Los Angeles - added to that from Canada's CERB and extended (un)employment insurance modifications during the first two years of the COVID-19 Pandemic makes it clearer that UBI will be good for the populations of multiple countries, once it's instituted properly.

Re: Also: about Item 2 on today's list?

[channelpenguin]

I wish I could hope for UBI as genuinely "U". But I remain convinced that human nature (and wrong assumptions about lazy people) will ensure it doesn't happen.

I'm pretty sure I could set myself up to survive on €1000/month. My pension if I ever get there would be more - but I suspect it UBI ever happens, then state pensions will cease to exist and people will just get UBI instead (though since Germany gives you a pension kinda based on what you earned over time, up to a not-dreadfully-generous limit maybe it wouldn't)

Re: Also: about Item 2 on today's list?

[dewline]

There's a Canada Pension Plan, which for people with lots of short-term jobs won't amount to a lot, even with Old Age Security and other supplements added in these days. I think it's kept that way to encourage the Registered Retirement Savings Plan and Tax-Free Savings Account business...again, for those who could afford to pile money into those devices to begin with. Because "kinda based on what you earned over time" doesn't cut it for people who haven't been able to earn a lot to begin with. UBI as a successor to CPP - if properly structured (and I have no patience for people who think that "unemployed = chronically lazy", either) - would be far more helpful.

Not saying that RRSPs should be ended. If one can top up like that, go ahead. Just don't starve me to keep their idea of what a just universe looks like in force.

Re: Also: about Item 2 on today's list?

[channelpenguin]

Agreed.

Re: Also: about Item 2 on today's list?

[bens_dad]

My worry is that the market will develop products - housing, food, etc. - priced for the UBI and once they have taken over remove any quality, leaving the UBI only being enough to buy crap.

Re: Also: about Item 2 on today's list?

[andrewducker]

That doesn't seem to have happened with the existence of welfare generally. Competition still seems to work.

Re: Also: about Item 2 on today's list?

[armiphlage]

We have currently housing, food, and other products priced for minimum wage earners, with quality barely meeting the limits set by legislation to be classified as habitable or edible. So agreed, the market will continue to provide crap to the non-wealthy. The only difference will be that people will have a better likelihood of receiving sufficient crap.