I love the concept of UBI. The ideals behind it make sense and are sound. Unfortunately, it also rings alarm bells for me, not because I think the people would become lazy, but because it would be implemented by rulers I don't trust not to take advantage of it for their own ends.
How long would it be before you are obligated to submit to whatever chipping or vaccinations they demand in order to continue receiving it? Our leaders aren't benevolent and they aren't concerned about our freedoms, only about what works best for them. And when you realise that many of the people in powerful positions aren't ashamed to declare that they think the world is overpopulated and that the people are of no more value to them than "cannon fodder," well that doesn't help settle those alarm bells.
The people who own the mint don't care about money (why would they?)
They care about obedience.
UBI, like all welfare, takes from everyone and gives back to the obedient.
If you're just looking at total paid in: total pulled out, you don't understand the game.
Damn, man, you took that to a dark place! LOL, yeah there are some definite dangers inherent in the idea of a govt supplied UBI. But how else are people going to survive once AI makes so many of us redundant? There has never been a human capacity to not do what technology allows us to do, just because it unemploys many people to do it. Only in the past, technology has created new jobs. So there is disruption, but eventually people are employed, just in new ways. AI is a different type of technical revolution. It makes people unnecessary for anything other than manual labor.
As for laziness, that's what I've discovered doesn't happen. I'm not lazy though retired, and I see lots of people now out of work and unable to even look for work who are also doing a lot of volunteering. The danger is for young adults.
I remember how hard I had to work to build up useful skills in my 20s. I wanted to help, but couldn't do anything that was actually helpful. I'd been trained to pass tests and write good essays, to digest information and even apply critical reasoning in formulating new solutions. But what I didn't have was life experience and the ability to apply my knowledge in a way that created better outcomes in any way.
It took the necessity of "earning my keep" to force me to stay in jobs that taught me the things I needed to learn to actually be of use. If I had had a UBI, despite my desire to help the world, I might have given up before I got to where I could actually help.
Indeed, UBI seems to be the forgone conclusion to this path we are being driven down. In fact I'd say that manual labour is one of the main things to be replaced and then all that is needed is the engineers to fix and program the machines. Then with this drive towards AI, perhaps even they will be replaced.
I've never thought of it that way with regards younger people. Guess it would depend on the examples they have around them. Some might be happy subsisting on the basics, but would a desire to have more, when they see others working for more, drive them to learn and contribute. I know that would drive my eldest, assuming she couldn't weedle things out of others instead.