What do you think?
I think in the face of AI taking over many tasks, we need to rethink about how we frame the future of society. Reframing Universal Basic Income as Automation Compensation means presenting the policy as a way to make up for jobs and income lost due to automation and AI. Instead of viewing UBI as a general welfare payment, it becomes seen as compensation paid to everyone for the value automation creates, supporting those whose work is replaced by machines and helping everyone share in productivity gains. Especially in the US, the average person doesn’t like the idea of someone getting something that they’re personally not receiving. So framing it as a compensation that everyone receives regardless of employment status I think is the only feasible way forward.
It’s hard enough just to get people to stop trying to call non-universal, means tested welfare payments UBI, even though it’s only three words and one of them is Universal and that’s what it’s supposed to mean, that everyone gets it.
Honestly I think the best option would be to frame it as massive wealth redistribution, from corporations and the wealthy, to everyone else. Might seem counterintuitive, since to a lot of people that would sound kind of bad, but without being founded in such redistribution there’s no possible way it could actually work and be sustainable. If the idea of UBI gets any traction, I predict the main threat to its success will be “have your cake and eat it too” implementation proposals that can’t actually work because they don’t redistribute wealth, that people will eat up because they don’t understand or believe in economics. So make wealth transfer a core part of the messaging to head that off, and fight the entrenched interests directly.