Forum Post: Handouts?

http://occupywallst.org/forum/are-jobs-as-we-know-them-becoming-obsolete/

If you saw my thread about jobs becoming obsolete, then you would have read about the current declining demand for human labor due to automation in the work place, and how that trend is only going to accelerate. Therefore, if we are going to have structural unemployment, then we have to adapt. What are we going to do? Kill off the unemployed? We need to accept that there is going to be a high % of citizens who are not going to be able to have jobs from here on out, and figure out what to do about it. Obviously, in our current system, you have to pay for the basic necessities in life. That poses a problem to the people who don't and won't have an opportunity to earn money. There has to be some kind of systematic divvying up of jobs or else the workers will have to be taxed higher to fully pay for the non workers. That obviously would cause a political backlash.

I titled this thread "Handouts" because that word has a huge negative connotation about it. Maybe we should "own" that word. Whenever you read comments on news sites about the movement, you always get something like "all they want are handouts, blah blah blah, when I was younger I worked for what I got, blah blah blah, why don't you get a job, grow up, etc. etc." Why don't we "own" that? Tell them, it's a new day and age, society has changed, technology has changed, and is changing everyday. We don't have to, don't need to, and don't want to do things the way that it's been done before. We want to restructure our society to improve our lives. The purpose of technology is to make our lives better, not worse. So maybe we should "own" those negative connotations. Yes, we believe that our society has the capability to give everyone the basic necessities. Yes, we believe that we shouldn't have to maneuver our way through an outdated jobs market to work a job that could and should be automated if needed at all.

What do you think?