I'm still not convinced 90% of jobs won't go unfilled while everyone sits around and watches Netflix all day. I guess we'll see.
As a developer, you could ave your money for 3 years then live the next 10 in a country cabin doing nothing but watching movies.
This is the same choice faced by most people in the real middle class. Yet why do we want more? Not just entertainment, but better schools, and the chance to make an impact on the world.
Sure some people would take the money and do nothing, but many more will take this guaranteed income as a chance to take risks. Imagine, anyone who wants to can go to community college for free now, but can鈥檛 practically do it because they will starve without their job. Now anyone can do it.
Instead of asking if some significant number of jobs will go unfilled because people are paid a poverty line level of income by the government, we should be asking:
"Why aren't we paying people who work 40hrs/wk a living wage?"
The decision not to work and live off of UBI is only attractive to people who are currently working many hours and earning about the same as what UBI is offering -- and that should give us pause.
The evidence of people usually choosing to retire upon reaching the age they are able to receive much smaller stipends than their current earnings suggests otherwise. Many people value their free time highly, and a poverty wage to a single parent living in rented accommodation can be quite comfortable when doubled and applied to a homeowning couple with savings for rainy days.
> The evidence of people usually choosing to retire
The key word in that is "choosing". A huge number of people even in G7 countries comprise the working poor. They cannot, and likely will never be able to "choose" to retire. They work 40hrs/wk, often with two incomes and have no savings.
While we can debate the life choices of some of these people, it remains that working 40hrs/wk should not lead to an outcome where you can only just scrape by.
It's note quite UBI, but if the negative consequences were what you're saying, we'd see it in Australia. The fact is less than 5% of people sit around and do nothing, and Australia's economy is doing great.
More opportunity for the rest of us!