Basic Income Is the Worst Response to Automation

The economy needs something to balance the effects of trickle-down economics, which doesn't actually trickle very far.

I realized years ago that the taxi fares paid for by the state government is a form of trickle-up. (The state governments spend a fortune on taxi rides to get people to their Medicaid appointments...) There is no lasting benefit to society for showering cash on the medical-industrial complex. So I was taking advantage of a make-work program... The Medicaid patients were always hopeful that the next Doctor might have an idea to alleviate their suffering, but the Complex doesn't work like that.

The problem is that it takes money to make money, and there are hordes of people at the bottom of the economy's dogpile that have little chance of working their way up.