Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Am I missing anything from a vision of Wall-E in the future?

Q: If automation continues to accelerate, what are the implications for Social Security?

Automation can only help social security. The fix would only fall short if the yield curve for automation falls behind the yield curve for the productivity provided by human labor (possibly from declining birth rates).

Where would the extra dollars come from less humans? Monetary Policy: 20 years ago, the starting salary of an engineer hovered a little over 35k. Now, it appears it's around 90k. 2017 Engineering Salary Statistics Less humans making larger salaries, paying higher ratio of FICA taxes.

Ultimately, this is about the ability to provide goods/services to a larger population *not producing it. We can financially engineer a way that SS retirees are paid whichever amount, but without the current facilities to render goods/services behind that US $, the money will ultimately be useless.


OT: there's no need for the concept of taxing automation (whether software or hardware) in Social Security discussions. Automation is actually a business expenditure and not a taxable entity. Rather, it would reduce the taxes an entity like a corporation would pay in the process to provide said goods/services. ie. you wouldn't tax the robotic welding arm in an auto factory that replaced 2 welders making 50k; but impose FICA on the human inspector of those welds with a 100k salary.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Fish and Chicken have the Highest Return on Investment

Pork is *not that much less resource-intensive as beef/lamb. Was curious when Leo DiCaprio mentioned it in his "Before the Flood" that cattle was 4x expensive than chickens. Pork is 3x.