The thing that a lot of basic income proponents do not seem to understand is that this situation we have where apparent material wealth goes hand in hand with j

The thing that a lot of basic income proponents do not seem to understand is that this situation we have where apparent material wealth goes hand in hand with joblessness is temporary. China essentially made a deal with us that said "look, we'll give you a ~30% discount on everything we manufacture, and in return you look the other way when your industry gradually moves over to take advantage." Actually, it was more than just China. Many countries gave us this deal. This situation has been going on for decades but it is still temporary. This stream of goods arriving in west coast ports at cut down prices feels like it will continue forever, one day, when China feels like there is no advantage to her in giving us that discount, because our industries have been truly annihilated, she will turn off that tap and when that happens we will see a shocking amount of inflation if we don't have an industrial base to fall back on that can substitute those imports. Basic income is a nice idea that we could certainly afford today, but it will be inflationary, and it will contribute to the ongoing death of our industrial base, and if that China tap ever gets turned off, and if the rest of the world gradually agrees that the dollar is not needed as a reserve currency any more, the results could really be disastrous. So, maybe it could work, but first, we need to reject the Chinese "30% off everything" offer.