So I was reading David Graebers Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, which I would highly recommend.
I was on the fence about UBI but in the last part of the book he makes the argument that goes sorta like this:
If you are on UBI then you can't really be compelled to work or to work in shit conditions. If your pay is shit you can leave, if conditions are shit you can leave. Its not like benefits either where you'd have to apply and you'd be living with fuck all and you have to search for jobs or get sanctioned, you would simply stop going to work.
In this way UBI can looked at like a strike fund, it would therefore contribute to upwards wage pressure.
I've heard it said alot that UBI would disempower the working class by taking away their bargaining chip of work, but I think this is not actually the case, I think it would actually increase the bargaining power of those in work.
Now consider that, done correctly, a lot less people would slip through the cracks and end up destitute. Reports show people are less stressed on UBI than normal benefits, which im sure over a long term would correlate to better health, more stable families( most marriages end because of money problems) , less crime, more time with the kids to help them develop etc etc
If you consider student loans and mortgages, for most people these do not exceed 1000 doru a month, so UBI would actually be in a sense of a huge form of debt relief, less interest and penalities would being going to banks (where they make most of their money), which would have the knock on effect of reducing the power of financial institutions somewhat, as well as freeing up large amounts of human labour potential.
On top of that, I think many people would choose to educate themselves further if they had more time, they would also have more time, for example, to attend protests/direct action (more importantly, to join organising groups and organise protests/direct action)
At the same time, it is likely that the increase in spending power would equate to more jobs in the standard Keynesian analysis.
Fundamentally, culturally, it would mean a break from the idea that you have to be employed in drudge labour in order to be valuable to society.
So, to sum up, a stronger bargaining position with employers, more jobs,healthier, happier working class with more time on their hands to organise, less held down by debts etc and immunised to protestant work ethic bollocks.
I think the first argument about upward wage pressure is the strongest i've heard in its favour, its completely changed how I looked at it really. It could actually be the tool that allows the general strike to continue until we win.
I post this stirner image for the quote, for nostalgia of old leftypol, but also because, if the state (im not an anarchist just make it synonmous with capitalism) rests on the slavery of labour, if labour has the choice through UBI not to be a slave, then that state is surely lost?