This is also an assumption that is not borne out by already existing experiments with Basic Income and surveys on what people would do.

A basic income would free people up to make choices such as look after family (young or old), learn, teach or do other voluntary work, do part-time work instead of full-time, devote the time to music, art, culture, all whilst being able to get by – and importantly for the market, for business and other workers, still be a consumer. That would also apply to the “feckless”, “lazy”, “ne’er-do-wells” who do nothing.

As for numbers, a recent Swiss poll undertaken ahead of a future referendum on basic income indicated that only 2% of people would stop working. That’s tiny – and frankly, as we move closer to a society with fewer and fewer jobs for people to do, that’s perhaps just as well, because there are not enough jobs to go round now, so the less competition for them for those that are looking, the better.