[mabramo]

The crux of the author's argument is "People will have less incentive to work which is bad." And hey, I actually agree that people should work regardless of whether UBI is enough for them to sustain a decent quality of life. OP pointed out a number of good - primarily social - reasons why people should be going to work.

However, OP's conclusion was "therefore UBI is a bad idea" and never considered what society could be like if we all collected UBI and maintained similar unemployment we (in the US) have today.

My vision is that we collect UBI and have mandatory employment for X years and Y% allowed "time off / sabbatical / whatever" during which you are granted UBI. During the days/weeks/months you exceed the allowed time off, you are not granted UBI.

Of course, the policy needs to be far more nuanced with regard to people who are unable to work, unable to find work, attempting to help people find work in their field of expertise, etc.

I've never spoken to anyone about this concept at length, so I'd love to hear HN's thoughts.