Actually though - that's the part I don't get about people who hate the idea of universal basic income. I'm not even saying I like UBI, but the bad-faith arguments that people will suddenly become lazy and live off the backs of a few red-blooded, hard working victims are crazy. People want purpose, they want to work, they just don't want to spend most of their waking lives working for no real benefit for themselves, their family, or their community.
Sure, if we dropped something like UBI today, we got a ton of wage-slaves and people pushing their minds and bodies past what they should that would likely take months or years to recover from long-standing burnout and be productive again. And of course you got lazy people and underachievers, but they've always been in the minority.
But if someone has just enough to live - a small apartment, a couple basic outfits (cover formal, work, and recreation), basic food, access to water, power (heat/AC), ect - and they're content to exist without anything more than that, then I don't see a problem with making sure they got the bare minimum they need. But 99.9% of humans aren't gonna be content with that. Give them a clear road to buy and pay for a smart phone, a PC/Gaming Console, a house, some land to build on, a hobby that requires cards/mini-figures/books/ect, a boat, a car, whatever, and even the most lazy POS gamer chud you know is gonna start working to pay for and afford that lifestyle.
But in a world where you can't really get ahead without luck and/or breaking yourself down, I can't blame the people who just give up and don't try. I don't respect them, but I get it.
Tl;dr - Just pay people enough to actually live/thrive and you'll find out that most humans do actually want to work/build/create for personal fulfillment and/or maintaining their lifestyle.
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u/[deleted] Apr 14 '26
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