In my mind, UBI (universal basic income) and democracy are incompatible, at least in the forms we know them. The UBI idea is part of many utopias and it’s a beautiful thing. To have your basic needs as a human right, the same way as you have health care in Europe and elsewhere or the right to legal protection everywhere. The problem with that is too few countries or even parts of societies are ready for UBI. Here is what I mean by ready. Once UBI is implemented in a country, unavoidably there will be part of the society that will sit on the couch and stay there for years, if not for life. Human nature (most people) needs to be motivated by some necessity (like material stuff) in order to improve themselves. Without this motivation, the human race will deteriorate because throughout our evolution humankind was getting smarter and smarter because it was giving the smart people advantage (Darwin 101). Of course, I’m simplifying and there will be a lot of attempts to keep people motivated not only to prevent killing themselves. Most importantly there will be a huge wave of feeling good techniques: from CBT (cognitive-behavioural therapy) to a variety of gurus and most importantly, religions will bloom, fake news media will provide fake excitement and all these will give us a sense of purpose or belonging.

At that point, democracy will stop functioning because the average John will be so full BS that his only care will be to keep his cacoon based on his chosen delusion intact. A preview of that you can see within the majority of Trump supporters. Most of them are poorly educated, overwhelmingly religious, …the redneck stereotype. The main reason these people are the way they are is because US is a reach country and the wealth is so unevenly distributed. The riches can support (one way or another) enough half-witted and easily suggestible people which will tip the election scale into the “right” direction (e.g workers in the coal mines). Do I sound judgmental? Well, probably I am not immune to it, but that doesn’t change my point.

Let me ponder about UBI for a short while. The view I presented here is a bit biased serving my point. An alternative view would be, with UBI people will enjoy life and do whatever makes them feel alive (including practising a profession). The basic question here is what is the default state of humans and how permanent it is (on the scale of a generation). Most revolutionaries (or wannabes) aim to destroy the current social order and free people from it so they can return to their natural (default) state. The bolshevik revolution was an evil enterprise as a whole, but if there was any good seed in it, that was the belief that free people will do things not because they have to but because they want to. Society will prosper because people will be satisfied with their lives. We have to ask ourselves considering UBI: how would free from financial obligation people behave (at least in your country)? What does sociology say? Is there any hard (undeniable) data? How long can we count to stay that way if UBI is implemented?

UBI is a humane and beautiful thing and most probably will happen, but it will increase the risks for a society to go down in flames — for the fans of apocalyptic movies, a beautiful thing too.