The overhyped fantasy of basic income vs. robots

If the robots aren't really rising, is universal basic income really necessary?

We should be working with robots to make our redundant tasks less tedious.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Issei Kato)

Much of universal basic income's allure lies in its elegant simplicity. Replace all welfare programs with government checks for all. At least that's how it basically works in theory.

Of course, implementing a universal basic income scheme — particularly in a large, diverse, kludgy nation like the United States — would likely be anything but simple. (The version Switzerland is voting on next week is additive and wouldn't replace existing programs.) Universal health care sounds pretty straightforward, after all, but ObamaCare is anything but. The only thing the public and policymakers could be sure of would be messy politics and myriad unintended consequences and trade-offs.

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James Pethokoukis

James Pethokoukis is the DeWitt Wallace Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute where he runs the AEIdeas blog. He has also written for The New York Times, National Review, Commentary, The Weekly Standard, and other places.