I'm glad basic income is getting a lot of discussion, but it's important to realize we are still pretty early in the process of automation taking over more jobs than people can innovate. Technology has been making entire industries/classes of workers obsolete for centuries, and the economy has always adjusted.<p>In this next push, it <i>looks</i> like it will be different because AI/machine labor is so 'general,' but in reality, the pressure it will first exert on physical labor sectors will create more opportunity for a human economy based on social value and services (i.e. waiters in nice restaurants, artists, musicians, writers, inventors, chiropractors, etc.), as well as those requiring a combination of intelligence/education/creativity, like most of HN. There will likely be an increased prevalence of security guards, managers, and techs overseeing machines, and it will force people to take on skills (which they are fully capable of) that do not involve pure manual labor/doing what they're told. And of course, it's a longer time frame between 'pretty general' physical automation and 'sentient super-intelligence' replacing scientists, engineers, business leaders, and of course, the politicians who will never let themselves be replaced.<p>But when we do start to have the impetus for a basic income, say ten years from now, let's make sure it starts off basic, because there will always be jobs of some sort that you can get to supplement your income, and they will probably be increasingly social in value. Not enough to rent out a nice one bedroom apartment in Manhattan, but enough to get by if you're willing to go without nice amenities, get roommates and not live in an expensive downtown area. Until virtually every job can be automated and we are all servants to a mechanical society, there needs to be incentive/reward to working.