EVEN A DONKEY LEARNS TO LOVE THE WHIP:

[A]fter watching voters act out their rage at the establishment this year, I have become convinced that a UBI is a very bad idea that would further destabilize the global order -- and that the assumptions that had policy wonks interested in the UBI in the first place are bad, too.

Work is one of the core institutions that holds our society together. It serves two purposes: It provides people with the income they need to support themselves and their families, and it provides a sense of purpose in life and society.

Over the past four decades, work has become less effective as a way to provide income, because wage growth has lagged behind economic growth and wages themselves have become more unequal across the skills spectrum.

Workforce participation has also declined, meaning that even as work is getting less fulfilling for those who do work, a growing share of adults does not work or try to work.

In this environment, the logic behind the UBI is obvious: It is supposed to cushion the landing when an increasingly automated economy generates fewer jobs, and it is supposed to make wage labor less central to the human existence.

One problem is that a UBI does nothing to replace the sense of reward or purpose that comes from a job. It gives you money, but it doesn't give you the sense that you got the money because you did something useful.

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