This is an excellent read, and the only thing that I really want to add is at this bit:
> Each of these factors is critical: a universal basic income alone offers some degree of financial security, but it does not offer dignity to the recipient, or any return for society beyond a reduction in guilt.
It's time we re-thought the idea that you need to work for your fill. Speaking as a strong capitalist, it's simply not the reality anymore. To put it in the context of the tribe working to survive that most people think is a good metaphor, this is akin to having 3 incredibly good hunters in the tribe who catch enough food to feed the tribe 4 times over yet still requiring the other men to go hunting and not letting them eat if they don't catch anything on a given day. Why? We have the resources to feed everyone, and all the lower ends of the economic classes doing all the busy-work they could possibly do in a day cannot generate the kind of wealth that workers at the upper end create with a regular work day on a bad day.
The notion that you MUST do SOMETHING to earn your money is quickly becoming a barrier to efficiency, and with automation on the rise, it's only going to get worse. Simply "getting a better job" is not a sufficient answer for the vast groups in the population that we're set to unemploy.
> Each of these factors is critical: a universal basic income alone offers some degree of financial security, but it does not offer dignity to the recipient, or any return for society beyond a reduction in guilt.
It's time we re-thought the idea that you need to work for your fill. Speaking as a strong capitalist, it's simply not the reality anymore. To put it in the context of the tribe working to survive that most people think is a good metaphor, this is akin to having 3 incredibly good hunters in the tribe who catch enough food to feed the tribe 4 times over yet still requiring the other men to go hunting and not letting them eat if they don't catch anything on a given day. Why? We have the resources to feed everyone, and all the lower ends of the economic classes doing all the busy-work they could possibly do in a day cannot generate the kind of wealth that workers at the upper end create with a regular work day on a bad day.
The notion that you MUST do SOMETHING to earn your money is quickly becoming a barrier to efficiency, and with automation on the rise, it's only going to get worse. Simply "getting a better job" is not a sufficient answer for the vast groups in the population that we're set to unemploy.