Universal Basic Income is the idea that the rise of automation will eliminate jobs, so we need a base level of income for everyone to enable people to seek more creative work.

I don’t think it’s needed. However, my reasons have already been written elsewhere - nothing I will post here is new. The only reason I’m writing this is that my prediction is dated, in writing.

The core of my reasoning is: human needs are infinite. It’s hard to predict what our needs will be when most menial jobs are taken away, but it’s very clear, through history, humans have found a way to desire new things strong enough to create new jobs.

My strongest, clearest argument for this is the agricultural revolution. [1] When we were hunter-gatherers, we had no desires beyond shelter, food, personal connection, sex, and safety. However, the additional time off not having to search for food allowed us to invest more time, (eventually) leading to the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution brought us cars. Put yourself in the mind of a hunter-gatherer at the dawn of farming. It’s not possible for you to know you want a car, and that there will be assembly line jobs to make it!

We are the hunter-gatherer at the beginning of a revolution. Evolutionarily, we’re the same humans as then. We think we’re smarter, and that “this time is different”, but they did too.

Note: I wrote this in one take with no editing. ¯_(ツ)/¯_

[1] Guns, Germs, and Steel and Sapiens are fantastic books that cover human growth before and through the agricultural revolution.