I agree that the universal living wage is problematic because it sends out a signal of "You don't have to work" in a world where clearly work still needs to be

I agree that the universal living wage is problematic because it sends out a signal of "You don't have to work" in a world where clearly work still needs to be done. There are alternatives, though, such as the Employer of Last Resort or Job Guarantee style concepts. They recognize that what we are actually seeing is that there is a lot of useful work that could/should be done outside of the purely economic sphere, but this work isn't being done because the people who would benefit the most from it cannot afford it. Hence the idea to just offer everybody a job at a fixed wage (this wage would be similar to a minimum wage), paid for by government and organized by local communities, non-profits, etc. Obviously, the devil's in the details, but the idea deserves similar visibility as the universal living wage because it essentially solves the same problem, but possibly in a better way and without destroying the social contract surrounding work.