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The way I understand the motivation behind UBI is that it is inspired by the notion that we have (mostly) automated production of goods and therefore human work

by avz 10y ago

The way I understand the motivation behind UBI is that it is inspired by the notion that we have (mostly) automated production of goods and therefore human work has been (mostly) delegated to machines. It is therefore perfectly reasonable for people to receive UBI so they can purchase all the robot-produced goods. The reason I am skeptical of such a view is that production of goods is a tiny fraction of the work humans actually do. A lot of people these days work on solving problems, not on producing goods. And we are far from being short on problems to solve... Alzheimer's, clean energy, climate change... Saying that humans should not need to work is like saying: This is it. We're done here. This is the world we want.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
rexpop 10y ago
> Saying that humans should not need to work is like saying: This is it. We're done here. This is the world we want. That's not what's being said. We're not done. This is not the world we want. We should be able to work on Alzheimer's, clean energy and climate change without worrying about where our next meal is coming from. And, sure, many researches have salaries. But many potential researchers aren't employed, aren't trained, aren't educated. Think of the millions of folks whose passion for helping people, taking care of the planet or tinkering is getting sidelined while they work a cash register to save up for community college. Those people can use a basic income to find a better, more productive, more fulfilling and more useful position in life.