If full AGI dreams are achieved and 80% of jobs disappear, leading to mass unemployment, then we need to do something to support the huge numbers of people that no longer have any income. Taxes to support a UBI program seem one solution. Or maybe the labor market can shift to find opportunities for humans that AI can't replace and we'd avoid the mass unemployment.

But feels like we're a long way from that right now.

> productive

According to the economic notion of value, which is unique among definitions of "value" in being wealth-weighted, enshrining "mega gainz in brokerage accounts" as the ultimate social good while shrugging its shoulders at the plight of the ahem low-weight individual.

Infrastructure is not unproductive, even machines need roads. I don't think self-driving vehicles should be exempt from road tax.

It would benefit the people you are calling "unproductive things". That's basically the point.

Unproductive things like building roads, the electrical grid, water lines, schools, etc?

I mean this is how all welfare works, isn't it? If as a society we think it's important to reallocate some resources so that people can get food in bread lines, we generally do that.