[thr234ow234away]

In most of human history, we didn't have basic income. Instead, societies either let the working classes wither away to reduce in size naturally, which came with the risk of revolution as people would resist to accept their fate, or sent them to war, which had the side-effect of increasing national cohesion and possibly result in the gains of territory or resources as spoils.

Basic income is an expensive band-aid for overpopulation where far more productive, albeit less compassionate solutions exist.

[jschwartzi]

Basic income is a solution that assigns value to human life outside of its ability to build widgets in exchange for pay. An economic system which values productivity over all and which totally devalues human life is disgustingly cruel and inhumane. I would not want to live in such a world, even with a guarantee that I would be among the productive elites and not the unproductive masses.

There must be some solution that doesn't involve letting more than half of us starve to death or die in meaningless conflicts.

[AstralStorm]

The difference is, modern wars are either extremely deadly or not at all.

That solution won't work anymore.

How about going to space instead?