My least favorite things about anti- UBI discourse is always the techbros whining that "nobody is going to work anymore! People will just watch Netflix all day!" and I have 2 responses:
1) Who the fuck cares. Who the fuck cares what people do with their time! That's kind of the fucking point!
2) People aren't going to stop laboring. Housework (look, it's right there in the word!) will still need to be done. So will maintenance on our homes and personal spaces. Children will still need carers, as will the elderly and disabled. There are millions of examples of ~work~ that we do all the time, uncompensated, that won't suddenly stop because we aren't forced to sell our labor to provide corporation's profits.
I'm not surprised that what is traditionally women's work is invisible to these dipshits, but it never fails to anger me.
Anyway. Join the IWW.
Field studies have been conducted in several countries now, and the result is always the same - people will just flop about for a couple of months to recover from the burnout most people who have a job live with, and then they look for something to do. Some get a job with reduced hours, and some start doing charitable stuff like volunteering in soup kitchens and teaching others to do whatever their particular skill is. They socialize more, they are happier, and on average, people will work more, not less.
But the thing is, employers suddenly have to think about how to make their jobs appealing enough for someone to come and do them! It's hard to find someone to work for you for long hours under horrible conditions, if they can just choose not to; which shows you how voluntary our current system actually is.
this is as good a post as any to clarify a distinction leftists make between work and labour.
when we talk about work we mean being forced to sell you labour for wages. it’s coerced and exploitative, a fundamental aspect of capitalism.
when we talk about labour we mean the fundamental aspect of being human of just doing things. painting singing, poetry, dishes, childcare, building a house, tending a herd, hunting, etc. it’s your time, your energy, your interactions with your environment. it’s a big part of marx’s opus.
so when we talk about abolishing work we mean abolishing being forced to sell your labour for money, to commodify your own life just to survive under capitalism.
