In a post at the blog Simulacrum, “Liu” discusses three trends that will create a demand for an unconditional basic income: The fall of the middle class, the long term decline in demand for human labor, and the detachment of cultural production from the market. According to Timothy Roscoe Carter, “This is an excellent post, and my only complaint is that Liu does not explicitly note that trend #2, the decline in demand for human labor, is the primary cause of the other two. The section on the detachment of cultural production from the market is probably the best due to originality. This trend is important, and this is the first time I have seen a discussion of it that links it to a demand for basic income. My favorite quote from this post: ‘Don’t dismiss this as socialism, it involves a complete rejection of the Stakhanovite work ethic and a full-throttle embrace of consumer culture.’”
Simulacrum: Media, technology, and anthropology. “Three trends that will create demand for an Unconditional Basic Income,” posted 2013-07-10, in a Blog by Lui.
