Quote:
Originally Posted by The Yen Man
The argument is, in an idealistic world, a normal human being still wants to be a productive member of society. So their incentive to work is the fact that they want to work. If everyone gets the same UBI payment regardless if they make $10 or a million dollars, then the theory is most people would still choose to work.
The pessimist in me isn't as optimistic of human nature. I think once UBI is introduced (after the automation apocalypse), you'll see a bigger portion of society just sit at home and do nothing. I honestly feel like UBI will actually increase drug and alcohol abuse as bored people at home just start abusing substances. You'll also get more paranoid people falling for conspiracy theories and negatively impact mental health as they just sit at home going on social media all day.
Hopefully, by then the machines take over, we're just used for batteries, and I can live blissfully in the matrix.
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UBI also relies on the population spending their UBI on the needs of basic living, as opposed to just blowing it on cars, toys, entertainment, drugs, etc...What proportion of the population would use the extra income to leverage themselves into a car loan they can't sustain? That happens to a significant proportion of the population now. The idea that with basic income everyone would suddenly become financially responsible and choose to work, even thought they do not necessarily have to, is idealistic at best.
Are we going to then limit what people can spend money on? Give landlords and other debtors the rights to garnish UBI cheques for unpaid debts?