This is one reason I'm pro-UBI; while it might be reasonable to tightly couple subsistence to full-time labor while below a certain threshold of GDP, if our societal project is to maximize human dignity and autonomy (and why the hell not), truly consensual social relationships cannot exist at extremes of negotiation asymmetry, such as when survival / Maslow needs are reliant on employers and private capital.
Across some invisible line of total societal / planetary wealth, it becomes feasible to provide every human a baseline of economic and biological well-being; moreover, I would argue that such an economic ecosystem would be on net more generative than the "work to keep the wolves from the door" model:
- Economic anxiety decreases executive functioning and ability to plan for the future.
- Authoritarian labor models carry an "enforcement tax"; we can get more done if there's no need for a middle manager caste to enforce compliance and productivity (or the corresponding incentive for workers to "look busy").
- A great deal of real-world wealth creation isn't metered and carries no bargaining leverage, so goes unpaid / underpaid: raising children, community work, charities, FOSS
- As we continue to pluck low-hanging innovation fruit, we benefit from higher degrees of risk-taking. The more people who can afford to gamble on education and entrepreneurship, the more "hits" of unrealized value we'll discover (to say nothing of cultural and creative works).