Basic Income

Interesting that the article mentions third world peasant bastions and specifically India.  India still has a very large proportion of its population living in villages and predominantly occupied in agriculture.  The govt should do everything it can to empower the farmer and this ironically entails embracing free market policies - just letting the farmer sell his produce to whoever he desires and at a price of his choosing instead of regulating farm produce to subsidise industry and consumers at the expense of the farmer.  Also, to bring urban amenities to the villages so they don't NEED to come to the city.  Instead, economists are hell bent on advocating ways to shift more population to the cities which would not only be wasteful and destructive (of the environment) but borderline ruinous in the coming age of automation.  A farmer living in a village does not need a high level of income to subsist because the farm produce also provides for him and his family's needs.  It's a model ideally suited to a dystopian future where there are few blue or white collar jobs to go around and ways need to be invented to help people spend their time fruitfully in cities.  But no, we want dumb-smart cities that will have politicians and contractors laughing all the way to the bank while exerting a still greater toll on our natural resources and displacing farmers.  Not to mention the small detail of pushing a few more species of flora and fauna to extinction.

Being in the power quality world (installing and troubleshooting UPS units, power conditioners, filters, PQ meters, etc...) for over 30 years here in the US, I believe hacking is much more of a serious threat than an old grid since most everything is processor/programming and network controlled, although I agree with Mickey.  There are some areas where not enough investment has been made, especially by the power companies themselves.  They will squeeze the last drop out of antiquated equipment until it is beyond repair.  Although I think our grid is in better physical shape than much of the international community.

This thread has been interesting to follow and has taken some different directions.  I fall into the middle somewhere as I understand and see each view, but I would not trust the extremists on each end of the spectrum.  Those wanting something for nothing and abusing the system, then those that would exploit it for more.  It would be a monster to implement and then who would you want to run it?

I hope so too. Thank you very much for your reply.