Many people are hopeful about the idea of universal basic income, and if there were a referendum on it I would probably vote yes. But it's not where we should be pinning our hopes.
It's perfectly possible for UBI to coexist with a total dystopia. As more jobs become automated, UBI could keep us in a state of suspended animation, neither living nor dead - but surviving in involuntary idleness and atrophy, competing fiercely for precarious work that lets us live properly for brief periods.
@batko I mean beneficiaries are used as a political pawn already to their disadvantage. UBI would be similarly abused by the political class. If you accept a gift that you need from them you become theirs. The socialist needs to be committed to providing the basic necessities to the working class via the facilitation of mutual aid.
