Reply #24: One more big argument -- there is no longer enough work for everyone

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As a result of automation, it is no longer possible for the entire adult population of the planet to be given gainful employment making stuff and moving stuff around. All the chatter about the service economy is a reflection of this fact -- but service jobs along won't fill the gap either.

The growing scarcity of jobs compared to workers is a major reason why the middle class has gotten so dicked around over the last few decades. If the unemployment figures weren't being manipulated, we would realize that the jobs are no longer there. It isn't that the economy needs to grow more -- the economy *has* grown, but productivity has increased even faster.

Perhaps in the long run, we will find new things to set everyone's hands to -- just as manufacturing moved in to employ the displaced peasants in the 1800's. But in the short run, a guaranteed income will both prevent the social turmoil that would otherwise accompany the transition and also provide opportunities for people to experiment with completely new lines of work.

This is not a new ideas -- you can find it in science fiction going back to at least the 1930's -- but it no longer seems like wild-eyed utopianism. At this point, it's really just old fears and prejudices about "freeloaders" living off the efforts of the productive people that keeps it from being taken seriously as a solution to many of our current problems.