India floats the idea of a universal basic income
I used to think a universal basic income would make sense, especially in developed countries, only for the near future scenario of machines taking ever more jobs. We know that this has always happened in history, and new jobs were always created, but that doesn't mean that the rate of job creation vs destruction will remain the same, forever. What made me change my mind about UBI was to realize that a) human desires are infinite, and there'll always be more work to be done and b) the more work is done by machines, the richer the population as a whole will be, as products and services automated tend to be cheaper. I do expect the work dynamic to change a lot, and that in the future we'll see a lot more gigs and maybe freelancing for a few hours each week will be enough to sustain a reasonable lifestyle (for whatever that means). That said, I believe our political efforts are best invested in removing all the artificial constraints that make it hard for new jobs to be created, like excessive regulations for example.