Utopianism has developed over time from abstract fictions of ideal societies to both a canon of theories and a method of theorizing about what societies best facilitate the good life. Modern...Show moreUtopianism has developed over time from abstract fictions of ideal societies to both a canon of theories and a method of theorizing about what societies best facilitate the good life. Modern utopianism is under-utilized as a tool to evaluate policy proposals that have the potential to impact society's structure on a fundamental level. Universal Basic Income (UBI) is an unconditional monetary payment to all to fulfill people's basic needs. With that, it separates people's right to their basic needs from an obligation to work, allowing them more freedom in what work they do and whether they want to work. UBI has been developed into specific policy programs worldwide, but has not yet progressed beyond a welfare program in most cases. A truly utopian UBI would be more ambitious, but is not yet feasible.Show less
Human society is facing radical shifts of paradigm in all aspects of culture, politics, economics, and society in an age of exponential technological development. Ever since the first Industrial...Show moreHuman society is facing radical shifts of paradigm in all aspects of culture, politics, economics, and society in an age of exponential technological development. Ever since the first Industrial Revolution, innovations in production have resulted in the automation of many tasks initially performed by human labor. Especially China will face a large influx of unemployed citizens which can increase inequality and harm social stability, and sectoral shift of employment is unlikely to occur. This thesis will explore the scope of automation on a worldwide scale and narrow it down to the impact on technological unemployment in China. The thesis analyses the situation in Guangdong and Jiangsu in particular, because here there is a lot of employment in manufacturing threatened by automation. Furthermore, there will be an analysis of the government’s management of previous unemployment waves, inequality and social unrest. The social welfare system in China is currently ineffective to deal with future technological unemployment. For this reason, China should explore the implementation of a universal basic income (UBI) through experimentation. It is likely within the Chinese government’s financial capabilities, and similar wealth distribution projects have already enjoyed success around the world and in China. UBI has the potential to ensure the benefits of technology are distributed more equally to all of China’s citizens.Show less
