(1) I liked @Aidan_Regan article on introducing Basic Income. Most libertarians have been calling for it for decades which makes his swipe at us for not supporting it all the more bewildering. Minimising bureaucracy is Lib 101. https://www.businesspost.ie/columnists/comment-introducing-a-universal-basic-income-makes-economic-sense-0921858e

(2) I don’t share the Luddite pessimism about automation. Jobs will always exist and people will adapt to take them. There will always be demand for low skilled jobs. You can’t automate away cleaning, waiter jobs etc (I’ve done both).

(3) There’s some evidence BI doesn’t affect work ethic in MOST people but as is there are families that are generationally welfare dependent. It’s reasonable to say that will increase. It’s human nature. I get the poverty trap argument but there’s also a welfare comfort one.

(4) BI would have to be accompanied by the abolition of other welfare payments. It couldn’t be an add-on. This is the biggest danger in politically clientalist Ireland. There will be welfare losers. Effectively it would be a welfare cap which conservatives should support.

(5) It should also be accompanied by the abolition of the job hurdle that is the Minimum Wage. That alleged protector of the vulnerable would no longer be required. When @SocialJusticeI produced a report on introducing BI they also recommend a Flat Tax to accompany it. I’d agree.

(6) Overall BI is a liberating and individually empowering measure. That’s the kernel of libertarian thought and it’s a peculiarity of modern left wing thought that we converge here. The opponents aren’t conservatives. They’re social democrats who dread losing control and power.