[gregknicholson]

The employer/employee power dynamic can be like this too.

People are happier in a job when they have the freedom to walk away from it (and still afford to live). Typically this is because they have skills and experience that are in demand, so they can easily find another job to pay rent.

Unskilled workers don't have this freedom because they need their boss more than their boss needs them. Hence unions are necessary.

Universal basic income would give this freedom to everyone.

[cannonedhamster]

universal basic income would also forcibly extract money from those who have money to support those who choose not to work for no reason other than sheer sloth. The ultra wealthy are very mobile and can move their money at will, unless the government somehow gains the will to confiscate private assets for the good of the collective, but what would that say about a society willing to do that?

The solution is to instead tax the means of capital, or collective ownership similar to a B Corp. That way if jobs are replaced through mechanization the cost of the job loss is incurred by the company directly profiting from replacing a human being.

I completely agree that in the US there is a massive power imbalance that exists due to regulatory capture and oligarch rule, but UBI isn't the silver bullet everyone seems to think it is.