"If people are given enough money to live on for free I would wager there is zero incentive for them to be productive within society. Zero."
Take any country with wide social safety nets. You don't really need to work in them to live.
At least in my country most people prefer working. There is a small subculture of some families that seem to pass on unemployment as a way of life to their children but those are really ,really few.
My answer is - I don't know the general answer. In my culture people prefer working to not working, even though they don't have to. But I don't know if this applies universally.
Because we want something more from life than mindless consumption.
Work can be fulfilling. If money is not a problem what is to stop you from doing something that interests you?
Being part of a community, learning some cool new skill.
The idea that everyone will become a zombie on UBI sound unfounded.
Yes there are useless destructive people out there, they thrive on misery and pain. Capitalism, UBI, Communism, neither will fix them. But why present them as a example of how system will fail.
What about next great artist that went into ad company and never took a chance to do their art.
Or a next great tinker or inventor stuck in some soul draining 5-9 in a factory buried under medical debt.
What about those who would have a chance to create something tenfold the value they create now?
Take any country with wide social safety nets. You don't really need to work in them to live.
At least in my country most people prefer working. There is a small subculture of some families that seem to pass on unemployment as a way of life to their children but those are really ,really few.
My answer is - I don't know the general answer. In my culture people prefer working to not working, even though they don't have to. But I don't know if this applies universally.