Exactly right. We are going to need a basic income or similar scheme eventually. The day is coming when automation will be able to do anything a human can do (including neurosurgery and programming) . Work will be worthless. We will need another way to distribute the wealth that is produced.



And while we are not there yet, automation is already reducing the value of the work of many people. We need less incentive to work, but inequality is growing.



A basic income, paid for by sales taxes on the goods produced by the automation and by pollution taxes would reduce the incentive to work, but also reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emission. It would allow us to take the pay-off of the automation in increased leisure and reduced stress, not in more and more unnecessary stuff.