Comment by ANewFormation

The fallacy most people make is assuming the status quo, making a change, and imagining that there are no other resultant changes.

A change like this would be a dramatic shift and the indirect economic consequences are mostly impossible to foresee.

For a simple example the overwhelming majority of jobs that involve unpredictable physical labor aren't going anywhere - everything from janitors to plumbers to doctors.

But in this brave new world these workers, especially the lower paid, would likely require dramatic pay increases, when they have the option of simply not working for an at least comparable 'salary' (and presumably much more if former white collar workers expect their basic to provide more than a janitorial salary). So now you end up turning the labor market upside down with dramatic changes in the overall economic system.

And keep in mind how finely balanced economies are - most Western economies, if growing, are only growing by a couple of percent by year. And now imagine hitting them with this scale of change.