What happens now if everybody is jobless, does the jobless still feel bad about it?
negative income / social welfare are packaged in a way that telegraphs dependency and low self-worth.
[ I would also be really interested in seeing an economic analysis of how much money and time is spent on administering social welfare ]
Basic income needs to be marketed as a positive way : here's some money - it is your share of the basic wealth from the land/resources and the benefits of our technology to the country - do something useful with it.
[ I also wonder how many of those 'lazy-dole-bludgers' now on social welfare would have a better sense of self-worth, and actually get off their arse and do something useful if we didn't make it so clear to them they were total failures from school age ]
Changing this sort of culture once it has formed is really, really hard. People much more dedicated than me have poured in enormous resources without make a dent in the problem.
Imagine: You're 18 years old and your Dad gives you $500. He says, "You don't make any money and have to rely on me. Here is your spending money" or "You'll be making a lot of money (value) later on in life, this will help you kickstart it."
To what extent does Australian welfare gradually taper off as a means to incentivize saving, instead of punishing it?
The real problems come when everyone in the community is unemployed. We really need to work on new societal structures to make sure that we don't follow the same path our remote communities have fallen into.
Then again, it might remind them of their own failures and they get double drunk that night. I'm not sure.