Universal Basic Income needs to be put in place NOW before living wage jobs disappear.

That's the question, isn't it? Fortunately (or, depending on how you look at it, unfortunately) as society gets more complex and more education and resources are required to achieve stability, most individuals choose to delay having children well into their fertile period, thus shrinking their reproductive window and lowering the overall birth rate. In many parts of the world, the birth rate has already dipped beneath replacement rate. As the population shrinks and ages, labor will become scarce and its value will go up. A similar phenomenon occurred in Europe after the Black Death and again after WWII. The future is not a jobless - it will most like be laborless. That's why labor automation is such a big deal.

It's assumed technology will take away low-paid, low-skilled jobs. I don't want to rule that out but I think a ton of middle-class professional jobs will also be automated too.

A lot of banking and accounting can be automated especially in the cashless society we are headed to, computers can identify routine medical conditions, vehicles can diagnose problems with themselves, chatbots can be sophisticated enough to respond to emails. They're not just sweeping the floor.

IMO the jobs of the future will be things computers have difficulty replicating. I suspect the girl who dropped school to work as a beautician or hairdresser are safe from automation because people (women) see them to have a social interaction as much as anything. I can't imagine robots being able do a comedy routine. Fashion and art is not something computers can do, it's uniquely human. If I was ill I wouldn't want to be nursed by a robot but I don't care if my bank manager is one.

The world will still need high thinkers but those people will need an understanding of society and have human skills, not high IQ people who can do numbers.

LOL. This country will never see UBI. Not too long ago we were ending careers for talking like that OP. I don’t dare mutter the words ‘socialism’ where I come from.

Are you purposely missing the point?

I am an advocate for Universal Basic Income but not for your stated concern. I do not fear technological development. I am an advocate for U.B.I. because I believe in a social safety net. Means Testing is highly inefficient. Means Testing is a disincentive for improvement program. I find it extremely wasteful to pay thousands of city, county, state and federal government workers $60,000 to $180,000 per year in an attempt to track who had a 5% increase in income over rate of inflation and who had a $5000 increase in net worth.

It is coming, you are just 20 years early to the party.

I vote for capitalism instead. I do not believe a high IQ is the determining fact of high income. I do not care who you are or where you come from, if you have these 3 things you will be very successful in America.

1. An endless work ethic

2. A skill people are willing to pay you for

3. Communication skills

Universal basic income in the land of opportunity is pablum for the pathetic, lazy, and stupid. Which categories do you match up with?

Pathetic and stupid. I am certainly NOT lazy.

People with a low IQ have difficulty developing a skill that people are willing to pay a living wage for.

People with a low IQ have difficulty with communication skills. They are stupid. Their brains are, by definition, ill equipped for excelling in such things.

If downvotes were a currency, I'd be Elon Musk, BABY!!!!

It's ironic that the same people asking for UBI now because of automation/AI and the subsequent potential loss of jobs are the same people who are comfortable with and continue to allow the illegal immigration of low-skill labor jobs from third world countries.

I know Democrats like this - they just want everything to go their way because they don't live with the consequences of their ideas and grew up with parents that never told them "no".

If you're here illegally, you should be deported. You're taking jobs that some Americans want and need!

Nope. Not me. Sorry that I don't fit the narrative.

The only reason people depend on a job for 'reason and purpose' is because they've been trained to think that way.

That's the problem that should be solved, not forcing people to have a job for no reason.

We could start by actually valuing things like the arts in education.

It's so funny that the exact posters who say things like "the only degree worth anything is a STEM degree, everything else is a fluff degree" are the same one's that post things like "people need jobs to give life purpose and meaning"

The world needs ditch diggers too

Ummm...were broke...like 31 trillion in debt broke.. no money left after servicing the debt for .. maybe ever.

well...probably should get john Connor involved, he'll know what to do

Every person needs to have all their wealth confiscated, and in return they will all be given:

- one personal servant robot
- one battle tank robot
- one strategic advisor robot
- one all-purpose customizable robot

From that level playing field, let the cards fall where they may.

Wait!!! I was given the robots but wasn't given any freaking cards!!!!!