Well, this article is certainly an example of cognitive decline it's talking about. Why would society want to encourage geniuses to work less thanks to welfare?

Well, this article is certainly an example of cognitive decline it's talking about. Why would society want to encourage geniuses to work less thanks to welfare? UBI does have several purposes worth considering: - If people are in a temporary crisis, giving them enough spending money to live in a dorm and eat rice and lentils can let them recover rather than the crisis becoming worse and more permanent due to traumatic life experiences. - Some adults are permanently incapable of fully supporting themselves through commercial employment. Could be because of physical or mental disability, or just a 50 year old coal miner too old to learn new marketable skills. So instead of having a fraction of the population be angry, miserable and fomenting trouble, we offer them an early retirement/semi-retirement. Let robots work for you, enjoy! But that's at best a necessary evil, with many side effects. For example, when these functions are taken up by voluntary institutions, aid recipients are incentivized to not bite the hand that feeds them and to support themselves or pay it forward to the largest degree possible. The last thing we want to do is to impose dependency on people who least need it and are most able to benefit the rest of us through their hard work. Get all the obstacles out of their way, let them get their foot in the door through apprenticeships if college is not a good option and let them shine!