Just give them a basic income guaranteed by law.

That's not unlike building a really comfortable guillotine.

Please, lie down, make yourself at ease...

You assume because people don't have to do what other people tell them to do to survive (i.e. work for pay), they will do nothing? Sure some will just sit and watch TV, others will build things, study things, make youtube videos, put on shows, travel, and generally do the things that make them and others happy.

There are many many things people could be doing better with their time than sitting working for someone else for 7.5 hours per day.

On the other hand, it may be the most humane way to deal with the fact that the economy has reached peak human.

How did we deal with horses in the beginning of the 20th century?

We shot them, butchered them, and turned them into cat and dog food. That's how the pet food industry got its start.

Good example for your argument, maybe, but I doubt it's going to win you many converts.

It's a lot easier to stop horses breeding.

If automation ever gets to the point where a law guaranteed basic income is required, there's no reason that incentivized or mandatory sterilization can't be required as well, especially if made a prerequisite for said basic income.

UBI, at any level reasonably sustainable with modern or near-future technology and achievable productivity, isn't comfortable, its at best an alleviation of severe poverty (and a mitigation of some of the harms induced by means-tested social benefit programs in pursuit of alleviating severe poverty) for those who can't find a way to make more, as well as boost to those who can but who are still net beneficiaries after considering whatever tax or other mechanism is used to fund the UBI.

Are you talking about a global UBI? That might be true.

A UBI in Europe could mostly just replace current spending at similar levels, and thus would be comfortable enough in eg Germany or Scandinavia.

> A UBI in Europe could mostly just replace current spending at similar levels

While UBI is more administratively efficient than means-tested benefit programs, it also inherently reaches a lot more people with its maximum benefit. I don't think there is any major country (there might be some small ones with a lot of money flowing in from the outside) that could sustainably keep UBI at any comfortable level rather than an alleviating severe poverty level at this time.

Of course, on average you'd need to recover the full UBI from the average (not median) person via taxes.

Any ideas on how to promote self-actualization and self-improvement in the masses when UBI takes hold? Sounds like a project that must go hand in hand with UBI experiments.

Basically all of Economics and Psychology would say that you don't have to do anything. So long as people have options for those things that they believe will actually improve their situation, they will take them once they are not spending all of their time just trying to stay sane while providing for the basics.

>Having a paid job means you don't have to rely on the goodwill of someone or something else to get fed.

I'm pretty sure relying on your bosses to pay you a livable wage is precisely relying on good-will. If you're not able to strike or walk away, they've got no actual reason to do that.

Companies pay employees out of self-interest, not benevolence.

Some work is power, other work is neigh slavery.