RE: Universal Basic Income: The Answer to Automation
All "income" must come from somewhere. Money is a representation of value that people agree to exchange with one another and requires that some people are exchanging their efforts (value) for that money, which money they then use to purchase the value created or possessed by someone else. Without it being primed with value, it cannot have any value.
A system based on people being forced to give up their value (taxation) so that someone else can receive the benefits of their value and without those other people having to provide commensurate value in exchange is a 1) system of slavery and a 2) doomed money system.
Additionally, imagine UBI as "everyone is given all the food and housing they need to survive". Okay. Who will plant the crops, tend them and the livestock, harvest the food, distribute it, provide building materials and labor, etc., etc., etc., for free?!? Would you do all that for free? Would anyone? If not, how in the world could those things be provided for free? They cannot.
UBI is an unsustainable illusion.
To answer your question, yes. I do believe that people will do all those things for free, and since they are, they will research the quickest and most efficient method to get it done, since the effect of an hourly wage will not coerce them into working at the slowest rate possible to earn the most profit. Try thinking like this, if you had all the means to survive, what would you do with your life? A lot of people would probably say that they would spend the rest of it relaxing and doing nothing. Lets take a look at that mindset for a second though, shall we? It is absolutely awesome to have time to relax and do what we want when we want, but I hold that this is only so nice, because it is a luxury. If this is your every day, is it still going to be just as special to you? I sincerely doubt it. Sure a lot of people definitely will take some time off and do nothing. However, I really have a hard time believe that a hedonistic lifestyle will be fulfilling. There are a lot of people out there, who want to help their fellow man, but cant for various economic reasons. When you eliminate the barrier to entrance, suddenly these people can actualize their dreams. A universal basic income would spur massive amounts of innovation, because there wouldn't be any sort of coercive force keeping you tied down to any one job. So to answer your question, who is going to plant the crops, harvest food, and distribute it? People who WANT to, rather than people who are coerced to. You cant think of it as getting something for free, because chances are that in this UBI world, you would be doing something with your time that in some way assists your fellow man as well. Humans are naturally giving. Deep down inside, we all wanna help each other. However, for most of us today, life just gets in the way of letting us do that, because we have to earn money to keep ourselves afloat. So why would we share our means of survival with anyone else when we're barely staying afloat ourselves? When you remove all of that and give everyone a UBI, suddenly theirs no more struggling to stay afloat. Everyone has breathing room. When you have this, you get freedom to pursue your desires. "If you arent interested in changing the world, it just means that you're one of the people who wont." - Jaques Fresco.
"I do believe that people will do all those things for free". Really? How could they? To put in the physical effort, the time and resources to do that would swiftly drive the person doing so into destitution. Even the altruistic need to provide for themselves and their families. If they were not remunerated, how could they?
Your idea that people will not work simply because they don't have to is in my opinion worng... people enjoy working because it fulfills them. If you have time, check out my post about a little village in Spain who have purposefully planted crops which require intensive human interation in order to generate MORE work for themselves: https://steemit.com/voluntaryism/@freewill/no-police-full-employment-and-taking-back-control-from-the-state-is-this-a-model-for-society-steemit-could-get-behind-miranaleda
But hold on - money can and is being created for free (quantitative easing) why not distribute that "free" money to the people, rather than buy bonds with it (which essentially just gives the money to those invested in the stock market). check out www.positivemoney.org.ulk if you have time... they have some very good arguements on this subject.
If being prosperous were as simple as printing pieces of paper we could all make ourselves rich in a few minutes. That is not how reality works, of course, so you gotta ask yourself why.
"PositiveMoney" promotes the idea that we can keep a centralized and state-enforced money system but just turn it into a nicer one that cares, that will somehow be better now... because we can trust politicians... :-P
Any system that is enforced and not subject to the free market (which is individuals able to make free will choices to opt in-or-out of whatever they wish) is corrupt from inception and further corruptible. That cannot work which is why crypto-currencies like Bitcoin and Steem exist in the first place.
Being prosperous isn't as simple as printing pieces of paper, obviously, but if you automate all the work which is required of people, then they will be prosperous without having to lift a finger. If all the gains from automation only go to those who had enough money to buy the machines which now do the work, you're going to have a huge chunk of the population who are desperately poor, and I can't get behind that at all. Society will need to find a fair way to distribute the "wealth", and UBI is an attempt at that.
I know I'm probably on the wrong website to promote state solutions to our troubles, but the free market solution is bound to end up with unelected people with just as much power as the state currently has... the rich will get richer and more powerful. I've read plenty on the subject, from philosophers and economists, and I just can't see it ending well.
My thoughts exactly.