Originally Posted by Ken Condon
... Especially when ever more people are going to be put out of work through technology and automation.
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When people learn that I want to replace the welfare state with a universal basic income, or UBI, the response I almost always get goes something like this: “But people will just use it to live off the rest of us!” “People will waste their lives!” Or, as they would have put it in a bygone age, a guaranteed income will foster idleness and vice. I see it differently. I think that a UBI is our only hope to deal with a coming labor market unlike any in human history and that it represents our best hope to revitalize American civil society.
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I have never thought much about the UBI concept. With this discussion meandering around I have had the chance to try the idea "on for size".

I'm thinking that maybe the knee-jerk response to the UBI being a nice couch for layabouts and slackers is just one more manifestation of the the Great Capitalism Con Job. Perhaps, if people didn't have the stress of "making a living", which has been culturized into a competitive thing, we could comfortably try out what we are good at and what we like to do, instead of prioritizing by what makes the most money.

If we led fuller and quieter lives, maybe we wouldn't feel the need to consume so much. Maybe we would spend more time gardening. Maybe we would feel free to help each other out just because it was fun and fulfilling...

In my memory, the best times of my life were when I was younger and had fewer "responsibilities" demanding my attention and feeding. I had more time, I watched less TV, I was full of enthusiasm and unfilled with worry. I was definitely not a slacker or a layabout.

One more thing... I could really use some help right now in my "mission" for environmental restoration, which is chock full of very fun things to do, but the people I would like to have help are all mired in "making a living" and I can't afford to pay them what they need in this competitive world. What if we were free enough from want to be free enough to do what we want? Would that turn out badly? Or would that be the key to unlock our human potential to the fullest?

You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.
R. Buckminster Fuller