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Freed from the daily obligation to provide for ourselves, most of us would be miserable.
As artificial intelligence advances, some are beginning to welcome a future without work. But giving everyone a universal basic income won’t reveal most people’s inner Mozarts. It will make them profoundly unhappy.
In his 2020 book “Suicide: The Social Consequences of Self-Destruction,” the sociologist Jason Manning points out that those who lose their jobs are more likely to kill themselves compared with those who had not lost their jobs. This effect was particularly strong for men. If losing a job can do that, we should think carefully about what happens when an entire society is organized around not having one.
People say they want comfort but feel better when tasked with challenges that match their skills. Free time sounds appealing, but it has no built-in structure. You have to shape it yourself, and most people let time pass them by rather than use it to cultivate their skills or interests.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the Wall Street Journal (paywall)
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Rob Henderson is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. He has a PhD in psychology from the University of Cambridge and is the best-selling author of “Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class.”
