There are plenty of people that like to make the argument that a basic income would only encourage laziness and that it would ultimately not balance on the books. This is dead wrong.
First off, many jobs are fading away and instead of everyone agreeing that those jobs just need to go, some groups are out to try and protect these needless tasks or create other unnecessary job roles. If we don't really need someone to do that particular job, but we recognize that THEY need to eat, stay warm and pay their Netflix bill, well, what's the difference if we just gave them their basic needs? Oh, right, not a damn thing.
Will it turn society in to a bunch of useless bums? Frankly, in the old days I might have to agree that it would. That's because jobs use to suck, but these days the jobs we actually need are often kind of cool. If you went to college for computer science education but before college you couldn't care less about IT, well, yeah, a basic income would probably lead to you not doing that job at all, because deep down you hate it.
If that's you, to be honest with you, you're probably not that good at your job anyway, since you really chose your work based on income potential and not interest. But that doesn't mean a basic income makes people useless, it frees them to do what they would be good at because it interests them.
I'm not saying there wouldn't be lazy people doing nothing, but those people are doing nothing right now! Doesn't everyone realize that if someone deep in their veins want to be useless that there is some kind of government program out their that they can most certainly get accepted in that lets them pretty much be a huge drain on the rest of us? The system is convoluted for sure, but if we're being realistic, there are countless ways to be a complete letdown to your old kindergarten teacher that swore you would be an astronaut.
Really, the non-lazy people are stuck, forced to do something no one needs them to do and that they wish they didn't have to do. Its like when I would drink coffee at my friend's house in China, because Chinese tea culture is so different from the West's coffee culture, he kept politely thinning my coffee with extra hot water each time I sipped and I kept politely sipping as the bean juice became unidentifiable. Sometimes we find ourselves in a system where everyone realizes its not working, but you shouldn't just keep it going just because its the one you have.
If we implement basic incomes for everyone, we all don't have to worry about the mortgage, and instead we get to focus on what's cool and useful. People like to be useful, and we like to do cool things. We'll do tons of things because its cool. I spent years learning to read, type (not write, forget that), and speak in Mandarin Chinese, which is an insanely difficult language for an English speaking person to make his first second language.
How much money have I made from that effort? $0.00 and no Steem either. In fact, it was an expensive hobby considering that I paid for regular lessons. I don't even feel some need for it to land me some major business benefit either, being able to speak to the many wonderful people I have met was reward enough.
So many truly accomplished people were not just at the right place, with the right skill at the right time, they also loved what they were doing. The Zuck was learning psychology when he landed his career as a tech CEO. What do those careers have in common? Absolutely nothing. He just liked computer programming, I figure. This is true for so many people, they tinkered with stuff they liked as a kid without a thought about the future income they would get for it.
Why haven't we set up a basic income yet? We can. Waiting for the government to do it? Forget that nonsense. We can do it now, its a simple DAO. It doesn't have to be complicated, there can be tons of coins and tokens out there, but we need one DAO with one currency that serves as the major one.
It can't be Bitcoin, because whatever coin it would be, it needs to be an uncapped coin, able to generate a new batch every year forever. If you're not looking at a coin from an ICO investor angle, there is no need for a capped coin. Capping coins is mainly to make early arriving individuals rich, stay rich and increase wealth due to increased demand over supply.
Basic income is different, you get what you need and if you want more than that do something cool. Either way, while you can definitely afford a shirt, you might feel so free that you go without one.
But you know what you could certainly afford? One of my domains for sell. BioChainLink.com and ForkTheCrypto.com are priced at only $299 on Godaddy, but both appraised at over $1,300. Sweet deal. You can buy it, I believe in you!