Why should people be guaranteed employment if they don't offer skills employers want? Out of kindness?<p>If you own a business, would you like to be forced to hire someone because the government says you have to? If you pay taxes, would you like them to go to otherwise unproductive people just because those people feel they should have jobs?<p>The competitive nature of the work world is necessary to keep people motivated to strive to do better and to make them adjust to the needs of today's market. Otherwise, we'd still be paying telegraph operators. We can't all put stairs on Morrow Rock or join the Peace Corp. Someone has to do work that provides value, not just a handout.
Basic income does nothing to help since most people will fall in a hole where good enough is good enough so there won't be any reason to move forward in life. Free money leads nowhere.<p>Guaranteed employment makes a lot of sense. Create something similar to a Peace Corp where people are paid to help out different communities or work at public works that need to be done. No matter how much automation can be created there will always be things where humans will be the prefared way to accomplish a job.
What? You can't guarantee employment. You can guarantee death and taxes. Do the efficient thing: eliminate the vast welfare bureaucracy and simply pay basic income. While you're at it, eliminate a great deal of tax bureacracy and change to a flat tax on consumption.