Autonomous labor could mean big changes in the future of the workforce. Robots are on a steady slope to eliminate millions of jobs over the coming decades. Stowe Boyd, lead researcher for GigaOM Research, believes by 2025 "Pizzas will not be delivered by teenagers hoping for a tip. Food will be raised by robotic vehicles, even in small plot urban farms that will become the norm, since so many people will have lost their jobs to 'bots. Your X-rays will be reviewed by a battery of Watson-grade AIs, and humans will only be pulled in when the machines disagree." With all of these jobs being done by autonomous workers what happens to the people the robots replaced? They will be forced to either find other jobs or find ways to do their current job more efficiently than a robot would and still need basic universal income in the end. .
This extra money with no strings attached would fill the void of a missing paycheck if laid off due to autonomous labor. The idea of basic universal income is very simple, everyone no matter if they choose to work or not receive a single basic income to provide for a comfortable living. The government could make it taxable or non-taxable. They would also have to decide how they would want to allocate the money, whether annually like a tax refund check or monthly like a regular income check. Lastly the government would need to figure out how much would be given out per child versus per adult. The money would be intended to only be enough for people to live off of and would benefit us in many ways. According to Scott Santens, "By guaranteeing everyone has at the very least, the minimum amount of voice with which to speak in the marketplace for basic goods and services, we can make sure that the basic needs of life -- those specific and universally important to all goods and services like food and shelter -- are being created and distributed more efficiently.