Sorry for the existential question on a Sunday night.
But the UK is not a very productive society. If you turned off the internet, half the workforce would have nothing to do.
AI is becoming exponentially better and it’s no longer a pipe dream that it will take over jobs. It already has in some cases.
So… what happens? Our entire current economic model requires us to be workers, taxpayers, and consumers. But if we cannot work, and therefore pay no income tax and cannot consume… then what?
UBI is an option, but where does the money come from? How much is given? With so much of our society’s morality and virtue coming from work, how much leisure do you allow? How many businesses will go under because nobody has money to spend on it?
I know nobody has the answers, but I am interested in your speculations. Even if it’s just dreaming about a utopian future where you will never have the Sunday Scaries again..!