content: The point is we will eventually get to the point where working is a choice and universal income is the standard.  The only people who will work are people with actual skills and they will of course make much more than people on basic income who do not work.  Somebody has to build and maintain the robots and we're a long way off from full automation so there would be plenty of time to figure out what to do with all the people not working, not to mention the idea of introducing basic income would be an enormous obstacle, especially in America where we've been told you have to break your back for 50 years to "earn" the right to a happy and fulfilling life that you might get to enjoy for the last 20 if you're lucky.    You can't fight automation though.  When mechanical reapers came out in the 1800s I promise you the crop pickers were crying about lost jobs too, but if you could ask in any farmer in the world if he'd like to trade in his combine for 200+ employees he has to pay individually, I wonder what he would say.  And it looks like we've got along just fine for over 200 years without those crop picker jobs. We always find something to do with people.