[jleyank]

Yet if AI works well, the number of well-paid workers will be reduced. In a consumer economy, this is a bad thing. Remove too many salaries and there's insufficient demand to keep things going. UBI in some form will be needed to maintain consumerism.

[ggm]

What does money even mean in this situation? It's functionally no different to a ration book: If its universal its needs-based, not production-based. It has to be set at a level which supports the discretionary consumption needed to sustain pricing of the goods now made by machines.

In effect UBI is "Pooh, thats not capitalism honey, its ... "

[jleyank]

It's a political problem until the replicators show up. And that'll be a while.