I’m glad you’re going to be working on this, Yonatan, and I look forward to following what Humu comes up with. Making work better is indeed important.

I myself am a Basic Income activist and have encountered the dignity objection before. I believe the objection is flawed because it seems to assume that recipients of Basic Income are just passive: they just sit there doing nothing except getting their checks. In fact, all the studies to date I’ve seen point overwhelmingly to work increasing and being better allocated under UBI: paid work stays roughly the same, unpaid work such as caregiving increases, and children and adults can return to school. These effects both increase people’s dignity and allocate their talents more efficiently.

Moreover, there is another pervasive assumption in our society that I am interested in challenging: that our dignity and sense of fulfillment are achieved primarily through work (usually paid jobs). Given that we no longer need everyone to work for society to survive, we should move to a mindset where people are acknowledged and granted dignity regardless of their contribution to society. They may choose to paint or perform music, thus bringing pleasure to themselves and others; they may choose to advocate for their favorite causes, thus making society better; they may choose to connect or do projects with friends and neighbors, thus strengthening social ties. All these are worthwhile in themselves and are social goods. All of these can foster a sense of meaning and dignity. And all of these can be made more reachable with a Basic Income policy that liberates people from the now-artificial hamster wheel of having to bring home a paycheck to even survive.

In short, I would say that yes, we need to bring more dignity to work (so thanks for working on this!), but we should also bring more dignity to non-work life — and I would not be so quick to dismiss UBI as a mechanism for accomplishing this.

I look forward to continuing the conversation!