Nick Boles tells us something which means that there is no problem with the idea of a universal basic income. Of course, that's not quite how he puts it but we're happy that we're able to point out the true implication of his assertion:
“The main objection to the idea of a universal basic income is not practical but moral,” he writes.
“Its enthusiasts suggest that when intelligent machines make most of us redundant, we will all dispense with the idea of earning a living and find true fulfilment in writing poetry, playing music and nurturing plants. That is dangerous nonsense.
“Mankind is hard-wired to work. We gain satisfaction from it. It gives us a sense of identity, purpose and belonging … we should not be trying to create a world in which most people do not feel the need to work.”
This is proof - if the assertion is true of course - that there is no such worry about a universal basic income.
For the concern is that if we do all have the basics catered for then none of us will do anything. Or at least nothing economically productive that is. This is to assume that we only work in order to gain access to those basics, of course.
If this were true then those basic income experiments that have taken place would see substantial falls in the hours of market labour being offered by those who receive it. This isn't how those experiments have worked out. Certainly not substantial falls.
Thus the assertion seems to have some truth to it, we don't work simply to earn ourselves the basics. But look at what the implication of this is. Perhaps it is that we are hard-wired to work. Perhaps it's just that our desires are for more than the basics. But what it does mean is that if the basics are covered then we'll still work.
There is therefore no moral problem of the type being described.
We can and should take this further, too. For this covers the worries about automation itself. So, the machines do ever more - what will people do with their lives, what will they work at? The answer being "something else." For, as we've asserted, humans work anyway. So, if some set of human desires are being covered by the machines, just as with the basic income, humans will still work to cover some other set of human desires. This only ceases when all human desires are satiated - and wouldn't that be a terrible world?
Nick Boles' assertion is that humans are hard wired to work. If that is so then we, they, don't need to be driven to work by deprivation. We'll, they'll, work anyway. Thus there is no moral or even economic problem with either automation or the universal basic income.
Assuming the assertion is true, obviously.