> However, a group of nail salon manicurists cannot.
So, this is true today, but I think it's missing the bigger picture of a world where UBI actually exists.
Basic Income leads to Universal Basic Income (UBI).
One of the reasons why there are so many nail salon manicurists today is because we have made higher education very expensive, among other reasons.
Do you really think most of the people working as manicurists today would be doing that if they didn't have to in order to pay the bills and higher education were free (or very cheap)?
No. They would not. That's not to say there's anything wrong with being a manicurist. Indeed some may do it because that's what they want to do. But I do know that most people, including most software developers, wouldn't be doing what they are doing right now if the basics were guaranteed for them.
The future is a world where most of today's jobs are automated away. It's very different from the one we live in right now, so it makes little sense to think only in terms of today's world when talking about BI / UBI.
This is necessary preparation for the future. You've got "Star Trek" on one side [1][2], and "Dawn of the Dead" on the other. You're going to have to choose somewhere along that spectrum.
I think your motivation makes (some) sense. But there are real issues with getting from here to there, and I'm not sure you are addressing them.
How do nail manicurest take part in a system they can't afford?
Traditional welfare systems do this by redistribution. In the US that seems to be a dirty word, but I think it's a perfectly valuable approach.
Another possibility is the Union-retirement-plan model, where a group of workers has sufficient market power to force employers to subsidise the welfare of group members who aren't working.
Neither of these seem to be your approach.
So how does it work? The key question is how do you stop non group members joining your group?
> The key question is how do you stop non group members joining your group?
This is up to the group to decide. To join a group the group must approve you to join.
The more groups there are, the more choice people have. It's healthy competition as per usual free market capitalism, but with some decency and wisdom thrown in.
In other words, everyone ends up better off. Standard of living improves for everyone involved because workers have more freedom to work on complex tasks since their brains are not per-occupied by the mundane and they are happy.
So, this is true today, but I think it's missing the bigger picture of a world where UBI actually exists.
Basic Income leads to Universal Basic Income (UBI).
One of the reasons why there are so many nail salon manicurists today is because we have made higher education very expensive, among other reasons.
Do you really think most of the people working as manicurists today would be doing that if they didn't have to in order to pay the bills and higher education were free (or very cheap)?
No. They would not. That's not to say there's anything wrong with being a manicurist. Indeed some may do it because that's what they want to do. But I do know that most people, including most software developers, wouldn't be doing what they are doing right now if the basics were guaranteed for them.
The future is a world where most of today's jobs are automated away. It's very different from the one we live in right now, so it makes little sense to think only in terms of today's world when talking about BI / UBI.
This is necessary preparation for the future. You've got "Star Trek" on one side [1][2], and "Dawn of the Dead" on the other. You're going to have to choose somewhere along that spectrum.
[1] http://lemire.me/blog/archives/2013/10/17/toward-star-trek-e...
[2] https://medium.com/@RickWebb/the-economics-of-star-trek-29ba...