> Even with an automated workforce, I think there should still be social incentives, and incentives require merit-based income differentials and some concept of

> Even with an automated workforce, I think there should still be social incentives, and incentives require merit-based income differentials and some concept of "earned income". A properly-implemented basic income barely touches this, on the margins. The majority of social incentives don't lie on the line between starving and subsisting. I don't see how putting a floor at subsistence level (not even enough to buy a TV, e.g.) would somehow remove (or even appreciably affect) the social incentives around getting more money. People want iPods and TVs and Xboxes and decent cars and bigger houses (both to use and to show off), and there's no reason a basic income would change that.