From: Hal Finney (hal@rain.org)
Date: Thu Sep 03 1998 - 08:49:31 MDT
I think Robin had an idea which could help with the problem of structural
unemployment due to job skills becoming obsolete. The idea was that
you could sell "income futures" which would give the buyer a percentage
share of your future income. (Apologies if I misunderstood the idea.)
In this system, someone who is in an industry which is doomed to
obsolescence would not be able to make much money from his income futures
contracts. Savvy investors would see the writing on the wall and know
that there was no long-term value. Switching to another industry, or
retraining to be able to switch later, would be immediately rewarded
by the increase in value of his futures. Perhaps the additional value
could even be used to fund the retraining costs.
Hal
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