The author's argument is everything will be fine because we don't want to work anyway. The classic UBI argument is some variation of "won't it be nice when we can find something fulfilling to do with our time other than fill out TPS reports" and the author's version is Kalahari bushmen only spend a few hours a day digging up grubs and spearing kudu. He's hardly the first - Conrad Lorenz put forth the noble savage and his life of leisure in On Aggression and Daniel Ash turned Conrad Lorenz into a talking gorilla (really) in Ishmael. However, the slant pushed by Lorenz and Ash (and the 4-hour work week guy and the your money or your life guy and the rich dad poor dad guy) is don't work harder than you have to, you simp while the UBI guys are always about "we'll need to figure it out soon because automation is going to take all our jobs whether we want to work or not. No, it's not explicitly a UBI argument. But it's only the UBI guys who pose the question only to answer "everything's going to be just fine." Is there a "but?" Everyone's gonna be fine, we don't have to work, Big Yellow Father will take care of us. "We need to rethink our relationship with the workplace" is an argument that society shouldn't have to work. QED, UBI.For those of us not tormented by visions of a Terminator-style dystopia, the most urgent question posed by automation is: “What will people do if robots take their jobs?”
Our preoccupation with keeping everybody endlessly productive risks harming our and many other species’ future. Most of the strategies proposed for dealing with problems such as climate change and biodiversity loss aim to find more sustainable ways for us to continue to produce and consume as much as we do. Likewise, most proposals to manage automation’s impact focus on how to find new work for those nudged out by robots and artificial intelligence.
But we should draw comfort from the knowledge that we are not genetically hard-wired to work. Automation provides exactly the opportunity we need to rethink our relationship with the workplace and relinquish our dangerous obsession with economic growth.
I see. Thanks for putting it clear before me. Do you think UBI is going to be a necessary part of the upcoming social structure once automation kicks off into double-digit job takeover?