The inability for many people to put the work ethic effort into building their own rewards is evident by the present time. People will take the easiest path possible to soften the realities of surviving[2]. This is also evident from the design choices behind successful, addicting platforms and video games.
[1] (ownership growth, material gains, physical gains (or rather, losses, since we are talking about fat/cholesterol, et. al), emotional growth, social network growth, personal network growth (trust))
[2] (economically, emotionally; all people, not just the poor)
UBI is also dangerous because it cannot be removed without wrecking havoc on society. It must remain successful, especially once the next generation is born into it.
No, especially jobs at the low end are not rewarding people for their hard work. At best most of these jobs just allow people to subsist.
And even at higher levels of income there is lots of work that's just meaningless. Yeah, they might be getting some financial rewards, but it might not be far off from just giving people financial rewards for playing some video game - I'm not necessarily saying we should do that, but that it would essentially have the same societal effect.
We do want to be valuable to one another. Right now, we are valued by how much money we have. The dream of a UBI is to move beyond such a silly measurement of human worth and let the measure of value be based on actual deeds. We don't need a boss to tell us what to do. We just need to be a part of a community. Stuff happens, we respond.
With the lockdown, many were given permission to do nothing. And many, many people found ways to do something nonetheless. We seek to give, to participate, to find our own way.
Yea, a lot of people who aren't into that stuff would languish but it's not like they AREN'T languishing right now. How much value does making someone else rich bring to your life if you're pissing it away behind a KFC register?