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Comment by stevenalowe | Hacker News Reader

What happens if nobody works and how will we afford it are absolutely valid questions. A sovereign fund might answer both

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> nobody works

That isn’t behavior that occurred in the pilot problems they talk about it.

All the participants in those pilot programs *know* they are in a time-limited pilot programs and that in a handful of years the money will dry up. This is a major flaw in all UBI studies which make them all but useless.

It will take 15 or 20 years before any UBI could be considered permanent enough for a majority of people to change their work habits.

Two or three generations would be my guess

People’s habits are not usually driven by such long term thinking, but I think there’s a more fundamental thing you’re missing: People will continue to work as long as there is an advantage to working. In any well designed UBI system, those who are on UBI and continue to work will make more money than those on UBI alone, so most people will continue to work.

Not to mention that most people enjoy working as it gives them a sense of purpose.

I agree and disagree with you. These studies should be done with guaranteed payments for life. Otherwise it is just not representative.

I do believe that people would still work though. Personally I would like to do a useful job with real benefit to society, but the low pay makes it not feasible. I would still want to work part time at least instead of not at all.

Golden Visas on sale now...

Not a major concern because any financially sustainable UBI is going to be so extremely miserly that most will choose to work. In other words, UBI will allow you to live on rice and beans in a flat with three roommates on the wrong side of the tracks.

>A sovereign fund might answer both

Barring AGI and a swarm of drones/nanobots, you still need people to work. Money is just a unit of exchange. If everyone on earth has a billion dollars, but nobody wants to work, nobody is going to be driving around in lambos.

This might seem outrageous but I expect to see it in the next couple of decades as AI and robots continue to get better and cheaper

Utopia or dystopia? Probably both, unevenly distributed

We will need people to work, but not everyone will have the capacity to fulfill that work, as jobs become increasingly specialized and the floor goes up

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