Basic Income and the Automated Society

Anonymous Poster wrote:I'm talking Universal Basic Income - the idea that everyone in society gets paid a minimum amount, enough to function in society, then they can choose whether to top it up with work. It's an idea that just got shot down in a Swiss referendum but has lots of supporters elsewhere; on the left as a way of extending the safety net and reducing toxic inequality; on the right as a way of slashing the current bureaucracy issuing current rag-tag benefits to the worse-off. As automation continues to hollow-out employment (there's going to be a lot of driverless cars on the road inside a decade, cutting something like 10% of jobs in a stroke) it might become unavoidable. Somebody needs to be able to buy the things the robots are making.... But what say you?