Is technology a friend?

Two years after it started, Finland is to end its scheme for Universal Basic Income, or UBI. A study at Oxford said that 47% of jobs in the US "are at risk of being automated within the next 20 years". Scholars recommend UBI where all citizens are paid a "basic wage whether or not they are employed", much like universal healthcare and education. "The programme allowed 2,000 unemployed Finnd to receive a UBI dole, even when they tried out casual employment at odd jobs." They were compared to a group of 137,000 employed Finns. The problem with UBI is, "One: it must be paid for by all citizens, which means higher taxes, and two: doles act as a disincentive for recipients who would otherwise be forced to go out and find work." The government of Finland thought that UBI would reduce expenditure by replacing current social security schemes but the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, calculated that income tax would have to increase by 30%, it will raise income inequality and raise poverty rate in Finland from 11.4% to 14.1%. Liberalism stands for self-ownership, wrote Prof Y Varoufakis. "You were your own property. You could lease yourself to an employer for a limited period, and for a mutually agreed price, but your property rights over yourself could not be bought or sold." But today, because of the internet, everything has to be a brand. "And today, with colleagues, employers, clients, detractors, and 'friends' constantly surveying our online life, we are under incessant pressure to evolve into a bundle of activities, images, and dispositions that amounts to an attractive saleable brand." Young people, those without family wealth, starting life are "condemned to labour under zero-hour contracts and wages so low that they must work all available hours to make ends meet" or "they must invest in their own brand every waking hour of every day".  Prof V Wadhwa apologizes for predicting that technology will improve our lives. Instead, "Social media has led to less social interaction, not more. It has suppressed human development, not stimulated it. As Big Tech has marched onward, we have regressed." Greater inequality should lead to greater redistribution, wrote Prof D Rodrik. Instead, "progressivity of income taxes has decreased, reliance on regressive consumption taxes has increased". Well educated elite, who believe in merit, have captured leftist parties. Why do people vote for leaders who lower taxes on the rich? Because people have lost trust in governments. Meanwhile global debt has ballooned to $164 trillion which is 225% of global GDP in 2016. With high sovereign debt governments will find it difficult to increase social spending. Back to Marx?