Some people just don't have passions strong enough to drive their lives. As much as I hate to say this, I'm afraid that this is probably empirically true (alth

Some people just don't have passions strong enough to drive their lives. As much as I hate to say this, I'm afraid that this is probably empirically true (although you have to be careful about the precise conclusions you draw from this). Most Western countries today are in a state of mass long term unemployment - there are millions of people who have not had a job for a year or more. What are these people doing today? Obviously they have only limited access to resources, but at least in European countries, they tend not to be starving. Are they leading fulfilling lives? Anecdotally, the answer appears to be no. I do like the idea of giving everybody enough money for a decent life, no questions asked. It is a fundamentally good idea, and we can probably afford it. But to think that that will solve all our problems is just naive. In fact, I think the combination of direct job creation for full employment (defined as zero involuntary unemployment) and a basic income is a valuable goal. The great thing is that both policies are probably beneficial just by themselves already, even though they should be combined.