www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cnd607ekl99o.amp
AI 'godfather' says universal basic income will be needed - BBC News
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I would absolutely struggle being told here is free money go do some 'wholesome endeavours.' Honestly spending all day walking around with no purpose, doing art just for it's own sake etc. Would be awful. Such things are great as an escape, not the whole. Treats cease to be treats when they become routine.
The most viable option I see is having social / care work massively increase to scratch the work routine and human interaction itch for those that have it and not leave our ageing population in the hands of robots.
Most of us want to be useful, productive, appreciated.
Part of the issue is 'bullshit jobs', where you aren't paid enough to live without welfare, there's no job satisfaction and you don't feel you're doing anything of real value, especially not social value.
And yet these are the jobs right wingers think will magically cure all mental illnesses.
Pretty much all the volunteers at my local community centre are either off long term sick n disabled, or retired.
Yet want to, and do, useful things and help others.
Your point about volunteers is kind of what I am saying - yeh it's a feel good work that people will volunteer for, but it is still work. Very common for retirees to seek something to fill their time, but a lot on here seem to knock that as being boring not spending all day on hobbies. After a year of that, people seek something more work like.
I would also say there is immense value and job satisfaction that can be found in the most menial of paid tasks, and a danger having stuff just given to you instead. In the last year I saved up from various shitty min wage jobs to buy a car, that was it's own satisfaction and I am happy with the car. My friend is on benefits and got given a brand new car for mobility, his car is objectively better than mine but he was not excited or grateful for it and 6 months in talks about wanting a better model.
His car is of higher value / better. But my car has more mental value to me because I earned it. The mental impact of being given shit instead of earning it is significant and an issue with UBI.
Yeah, I understand that, but it is a UBI, not a huge supply of free cash, it covers the basics, and then you work if you want a new car, holidays, the latest phone, video games, booze, etc.
IT takes the stress and anxiety away from struggling to earn enough to survive.
It's a shame he's not grateful for the mobility car, but he will be paying it from his pip, it's not 'free' as such, even tho it's from his pip welfare payments, that's a big chunk of money he won't have for other things.
Yeh that is where UBI confuses me. If you have to work to afford extras that 90% of people are going to want, then all this talk about spare time for hobbies etc doesnt work. I get basic universal credit is insufficient and it would be simpler to have UBI than mixing housing benefit etc assessments into it.
I suppose the end goal is working less hours for those extras and those who can't or don't want to work being better off? Just feel like increasing min wage and benefit reform can achieve the same thing.
My friend lives rent free in a new build flat and casually saves £500 a month for holidays etc., while spending freely - before food he has well over £1k spending money. All on benefits. Funnily enough his biggest issue and cause of unhappiness is the burden of so much free time, not financial constraints. In a way a good example of both the pros and cons of receiving too much money without work filling your time.
Its about making work and life more balanced. ATM we have a system of " work to live" but UBI allows most people to "live and work" . It also allows people to do work they wouldn't that they might prefer to their current work, there's plenty of things that might not pay very much or the money might be infrequent, but since the basics are covered you can take work that doesn't pay well but you may prefer.