Is universal basic income the answer when robots take our jobs?

As we innovate ourselves away from conventional work and labor, an unlikely question begins to form: How do we feel about free money? First floated by 16th-century philosopher Thomas More as a "cure for theft," basic income is finding new life 500 years later amid concerns over technology edging humans out of the workforce. If advanced machines are taking all the jobs, goes the thinking, then how will people earn money to support themselves? A "universal basic income" in which all citizens receive free money from their government -- a figurative tax break just for being alive -- is a possible solution. With all members of a society guaranteed some degree of income regardless of employment status, the ideology aims to provide people with some kind of economic anchor if they are unable to earn on their own.