What is the Point of Universal Basic Income? - David Perell

The means of funding UBI determine so much of its long-term impact. Each funding method carries a different set of properties, a unique host of alchemical interactions with socioeconomic incentives. Some promise to ’twist’ capitalist logic and pave a road to communism. Others may pit the minority class whose tax increases exceed their UBI against n... See more

Regarding the robots, UBI is less compelling when framed as a shield against job loss than as a tool to design a more democratic distribution of the gains from automated productivity.

A strong UBI would corrupt the division of labor. Making participation in gainful employment functionally optional threatens to unravel the entire system of collective production that sustains society as we know it.