Universal Basic Income

While I hope to avoid any sort of heated political debate, I will point out that I was extremely intrigued and fascinated by this Guardian article on Universal Basic Income. If you are not intimately familiar, as I was not, the general idea is to pay everyone (rich or poor) a standard amount of money just for existing in a particular society. On the surface it sounds audacious but it seems to have a lot of upsides to consider - liberates folks in abusive relationships if they are scared of having no way to live, it allows people to focus on work they enjoy rather than work they must have and, maybe the most intriguing, it prepares us all for a culture in which a lion's share of work is done by machines, not people.

That last bit is really what got to me. While I understand people may want to get into standard political fights involving welfare mudslinging, it's pretty undeniable that we're moving to a place - technologically speaking - where a lot of jobs won't be done by people. Driving trucks long distances, driving cabs short distances, manufacturing assembly-line style jobs, etc. etc. It's a giant chunk of the workforce that can, and will be, replaced for automation. With that in mind, the basic income seems beyond sensible.

Anyway, food for thought! I don't claim to understand the intricacies or pratfalls of it at all but it is a great piece, so read it.