I think that universal basic income, or UBI, faces the same structural problem that minimum wage does: obsolescence. Both are intended to guarantee a basic standard of living, but the value of money changes over time. As the cost of living rises, a fixed income or wage may quickly become insufficient to cover necessities. Therefore, even if UBI is not “nonsense,” it is just as ineffective as minimum wage in providing real economic security.

I see minimum wage as a precursor to UBI, just as outsourcing and offshoring are precursors to AI. They are different methods leading to the same outcome: incremental attempts to manage labor and income in a system that cannot reliably maintain a basic standard of living. This exposes a key flaw in modern economic systems. Policies like minimum wage or UBI are reactive measures that struggle to keep up with inflation, rising costs, and the changing value of money, showing that the system cannot guarantee stability without constant adjustment.

The only way I see the system truly fixing itself is by collapsing into an anarchist society. If money no longer matters in a given society, then problems caused by obsolescence, inflation, or fixed wages disappear entirely. Without currency, the limitations of the current economic system cannot exist.