AI and automation is going to wipe out so many jobs after Covid. Things were already bad before but for the average Kenyan (African) things will get much worse.
Assumption: Most Kenyans are by default barred from participating in the global economy. At best your average Kenyan is a CONSUMER only. They don’t participate in the formal economy in anyway but consumption. In this regard, indigenous Africans are like most native people across the world. In America, natives are poorer than average Americans but they are not destitute. They receive free housing, free income, free education, free uni etc because native reservations have been historically barred from participating in the formal economy. In Kenya we have these 2 options.
Option 1: National budget (most of it is foreign aid) is determined by a few policymakers. Majority of this money gets stolen. Kenyan mwananchi are lucky if they see a fraction of this. Very few politically connected folks get super rich. Majority stay poor. We pretend to rely on “hustling” and tuside projects but these can not move people out of poverty en mass.
Option 2: Siphon half of our annual budget DIRECLY to Kenyans…again most if this would be stolen money any away so why not allow the average Kenyan to eat it? Absolutely NO conditions. For example, ondoa every mud hut/slum in the country and guarantee housing for EVERY Kenyan. Provide a monthly payment (i.e, 10,000 ksh) to every Kenyan adult. Let Kenyans do whatever they want to do with that money. Kama ni pombe, chukula, majengo, bills, holiday, shopping, savings, etc…the money will go back to the local economy and it will allow Kenyans to consume local goods with the right incentives. This could remove poverty in a single generation but most importantly it would allow for a social order because the gap for people who will money in automation vs those who don’t (majority of Africans) will only get wider until we find a way to deal w/this.