Howard cited in Inc. article on robots taking over jobs
Michael Howard, a philosophy professor at the University of Maine, was cited in an Inc. article about what may happen if and when robots start taking over jobs in the United States. The research arm of Y Combinator, an American seed accelerator, is looking to fund a five-year study to run a minimum income experiment — one in which a group of people are given money to live on, regardless of whether they work or do anything considered productive, according to the article. Howard, co-editor of the journal Basic Income Studies, cited a similar study conducted in the 1970s in Canada. He said not everyone quit their jobs and that most people who worked less were mothers with young children and high-school students who stayed in school rather than joining the workforce. Howard said he wouldn’t be surprised to see shifts in the U.S. labor force, as well. “People might not want certain jobs,” he said. “They may prefer to do more self-employed things.”