The Basic Income Is the Worst Response to Automation RealClearFuture

We've been hearing a drumbeat recently of claims that a universal basic income--in effect, a monthly welfare check sent to everyone--is going to be necessary to save all the poor unfortunate souls put out of work by self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, robots, and other new forms of automation. We are told that the basic income will be "the only way to keep the country's economy afloat" in an age of automation, or that it will be necessary to absorb millions of truckers thrown out of middle-class jobs by the advent of autonomous vehicles. Of course, this being the field of high technology, there are always those who will say that it's not a bug but a feature. So we get Peter Diamandis reassuring us that "technological socialism" can "demonetize living." I have already thrown some skepticism at the idea that there is going to be a traumatic transition that will throw middle class people out on the streets without warning--rather than a long and gradual transition over decades, to which people can adapt.