UBI Is A Mirage

I once read a book by a primate researcher that started with a charming paragraph something like this.

Growing up, I always wanted to become a lowland gorilla. Instead, I became a baboon.

He'd studied and gotten the right degrees, but the wildlife research organization that hired him sent him to study baboons instead of lowland gorillas. He became intimately familiar with them. I might have my sources crossed here, but the gist of it is accurate.

Baboons only need a few hours each day to forage enough to feed themselves. The remaining hours in the day is spent being jerks towards each other.

UBI, Universal Basic Income, is touted by the super-smart set as the solution to the problems that will arise should technology wipe out massive swaths of industry. For example, what happens if all of our trucks become self-driving? No problem, say the people with letters after their names, we will implement UBI and those barely-above-farm-animal humans will be able to eat and maintain their crude dwellings.

Life isn't about subsistence. It's about being needed, genuinely needed. Without that, well, we will  most likely become jerks. What else are we going to do with our time?