To claim that we do not have the industrial supply to meet a basic income of the poverty level (at least in the US) is to also say we do not have the housing or food to sustain ~300 million people above the poverty level.
For the nation that is supposed to be the foremost in the world, and has been supposed to be for a century and a half, if that is true, all our talk of technological innovation and futurism is for naught, because we cannot even house and clothe everyone in our collectively agreed upon minimum possible conditions.
Housing, feeding and clothing everyone is one thing. Doing so while telling all of those people that they also do not need to work is quite different. Having just 10% of the current workforce drop out would have huge repercussions. The GDP drop might make it so we can no longer afford it. Or as I've said before, everyone having more money with no increase in goods and services will create serious inflation.
My point is systemic changes have to be looked at as a whole system. An economy and 300 million lives is very complex.
For the nation that is supposed to be the foremost in the world, and has been supposed to be for a century and a half, if that is true, all our talk of technological innovation and futurism is for naught, because we cannot even house and clothe everyone in our collectively agreed upon minimum possible conditions.