Both Musk and socialists are right.

If we don’t move towards UBI, we’re going to end up moving towards something else, and that something else is not going to be fun for anyone.

Although I don’t consider UBI to be…quite…a socialist concept. And certainly not a communist one. It’s not “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs” so much as “Nobody should live in poverty regardless of their ability.” It also supports libertarian ideals of personal freedom (and believe it or not may lead to a slightly smaller government — UBI can replace most of our current welfare programs. SNAP, unemployment, even much of Social Security, although we would still need programs for the disabled and chronically ill, who have greater financial needs and thus might need a higher tier of UBI or, perhaps, a system of grants and stipends to ensure that every disabled person who needs one can afford a wheelchair, an accessible bathroom, a service dog…

It’s also a classically Utopian idea, because automation answers the “Who does the dirty work?” question asked of Utopians with “The robots.”