If he's "not sure what else one would do," he needs to think bigger. I'm amazed that America seems so locked in to maximum laissez-faire that the idea that UBI is the actual solution has become remotely popular.<p>When truck drivers are replaced by self-driving cars, they won't see their monthly allowance as a benefit. People want to have control over their lives far more than they just want to survive. Sure, you have income. You can spend it on more plastic goods sold by the company that took your job, more consumer electronics sold by the company that took your job, more fast food from the company that took your job, all delivered on a fleet of drones from the company that took your job, while trying not to piss off the government infested with lobbyists from the company that took your job, lest they cut off your allowance and leave you for dead. Cycle that money right back to the same rich guys who claim to function on meritocracy and judge every applicant into their world by their ability to speak the arbitrary jargon, bolstered by a nice degree, the right level of expensive casual dress, and your race and gender. Or you could buy a gun.<p>Giving people comfort without giving them power is a recipe for revolution, and Silicon Valley doesn't get that they'll be the first against the wall; they'll still be wringing their hands and wondering why people voted for Trump when neoliberalism could give them so many cool new phones. Very few people in America are actually starving or on the streets; far more are committing suicide, either directly or through slow drug addiction, not because they don't have the means to survive but because they don't have the means to control their own lives, create their own future for themselves and their families, have the level of basic dignity that a solution like "here's your allowance, now go back to school and study hard" will never provide. Collective ownership, working democracy, a real attempt at a post-scarcity society is "what else one would do."<p>Welfare is important. UBI could be a fine way of making sure people don't starve to death. That hasn't been the major issue in the developed world for a long time now.