However, within the automation discourse, UBI proposals also function to smooth over, and thereby naturalize, human displacement. UBI exists within a techno-deterministic worldview that presents automation as an inevitable force rather than as the result of social and political choices. This framing obscures existing power dynamics by portraying technology as a neutral productivity enhancer and labor displacement as a mere externality. In this narrative, UBI merely serves as a compensatory mechanism for technological “progress” while labor-capital dynamics remain unchallenged. Human workers are relegated to merely advocating for redistribution from the “winners” of technological change rather than shaping technological development itself. Furthermore, it reifies who the “winners” and “losers” are, crediting one side for the innovations upon which the other side loses.
_ Beyond Redistribution: Rethinking UBI and the politics of automation_ - LPE
