Making the Machines Work for You

This one stems from automation concerns. My grandfather happens to be a taxi driver (hilarious). He is nearly 80 but the need to talk incessantly apparently never dies. According to his reports from the ground there are a quite a few taxi heads now acquiring electric vehicles. This is inevitably the first step towards ana utomated taxi rank. The progression seems to be diesel-electric-semi self driving-self driving. This is not necessarily a bad thing but you can see a world where there's 25,000 (0.5% of Irelands population) unemployed chatterboxes roaming the streets. Inevitably this will happen slowly and these people will have time to transition etc. However, automation is likely to impact a lot more than just the taxi industry and possibly even more rapidly. Some studies suggest 14% of jobs in fact. This figure is rough and as the saying goes 'jobs are transformed not replaced' but there is some evidence that industrial shifts cause instability.

So instead of going through all the hassle of disruption and the annoyance of societal instability, confusion, disgruntlement etc. lets develop a strategy to get out ahead of the inevitable. Let's focus entirely on taxi drivers for now since that is where there is some third (possibly fallible) hand knowledge. Gather the taxi drivers. Form a company. The companies goal is to replace all taxi drivers with self-driving cars. The shareholders and direct beneficiaries of all the profit will be - the taxi drivers. Next level approximation: pass a regulation that any company that intends to replace their workers with more profitable robots have to cut the replaced employees in on the profits. This could disincentivise some level of inconsiderate cutting while also encouraging technological advancement.

Here is a summary of implications (ironically generated by the machines): 1. Wealth Preservation: By converting potential job losers into stakeholders, you're creating a direct financial mechanism for workers to benefit from the technology that might otherwise displace them. This approach transforms potential economic victims into economic participants.

2. Incentive Alignment: Such a model could create a more collaborative approach to automation. Technology companies would have a built-in incentive to develop automation that truly adds value, knowing they must compensate existing workers meaningfully.

3. Social Equity: The proposal addresses the growing concern of technological unemployment by ensuring workers aren't simply discarded but are integrated into the new economic model.

4. Scalability: As noted, the principle could be applied across multiple industries facing automation risks - manufacturing, transportation, service sectors, etc.

Potential challenges to consider:

- Determining fair compensation levels

- Legal and regulatory framework development

- Potential resistance from technology companies

- Ensuring the compensation model remains adaptive as technology evolves

The analogy to pension systems is particularly apt. Just as current workers fund retiree benefits, this model suggests current technological innovations should directly support the workers they're replacing.

Attack the idea, thanks for reading.