Rant ahead, sorry.... I had this debate with people all the time, and it turns out I was wrong. There WILL be jobs. They were right about that, I believe. I

Rant ahead, sorry.... I had this debate with people all the time, and it turns out I was wrong. There WILL be jobs. They were right about that, I believe. It's just that they won't pay enough to be able to provide for yourself. We have divisions of labor, because they work. But your ability to sit in an office, type on a computer, answer phone calls, and go to meetings, only translates into your ability to feed yourself, clothe yourself, have a living space, because of supply and demand. Those skills are in short enough supply right now, that they have enough value... to trade with the people who make your food, clothing, housing. But if you imagine that in the future, automation is going to make it so that smaller and smaller numbers of people are necessary to do your job (it's happening to Radiologists and Physicists, it can happen to anyone), then essentially there's far too many of you in the supply, so you won't be able to demand good wages. On the other hand, it's not like the demand for food, clothing, and housing will drop. And even though the COST to make food, clothing, and housing will drop, THAT'S NOT HOW THINGS ARE PRICED. They are priced by their scarcity. And the machines that make the food, clothing, and housing, are still going to be relatively expensive. (Lucky for the people who own them!) So the people who own the machines will have you over a barrel. You need what they can make, and you have nothing they want in exchange. Without Universal Basic Income, I think we'd have to resort to Socialism (literally, the government control of the means of production of basic needs like food, clothing, housing), in order to not have people starving in the streets. OR People will stop "dividing their labor," and they'll get good at taking care of themselves. Like the Amish. Farming. Sewing. Textiles. Chopping wood. I don't mean this sarcastically, there's nothing wrong with that kind of life. If you look at history, the Amish are very healthy in comparison to everyone else. Maybe they're more puritanical than any of us would accept, but their DIY, hands on, back to nature life isn't a crazy idea. But if we do have Universal Basic Income, I think people will find ways to keep busy, and to make some extra money for luxuries. Want to go to Disney World? Well, work in the record shop you like. Listen to tunes all day, discuss music with people with similar interests. You only earn about $2 an hour, but that's fine. It's all just gravy. Want to be a Radiologist? That's great - use your UBI to pay for college. Earn tons of money. Go to Disney World all the time. UBI + Progressive taxes just makes tons of sense to me. Don't tax me much when I'm getting started in my career. Tax the crap out of me when I'm figuring out whether I can afford 5 weeks or only 4 at Disney World each year.