Dear Geraldine,

A few of us were having a pint at the Slippery Eel on Thursday — me, my mate (let’s call him Dom), half of Welston’s darts league by the look of it — when I read about a logistics company on my phone’s newsfeed. Apparently, the company is switching over to robot pickers. When I told Dom, he laughed. I didn’t.

One thing led to another, and before long we were on our feet, jabbing fingers across the table, going at it about whether universal basic income would actually fix such things or just paper over them. Tiny 2 started whining under the table like he could feel the temperature rising. Eric Porter came over with The Look and told us to either calm down or continue the debate outside on the pavement.

So now I need a ruling, Geraldine. I reckon if everyone got paid a basic income — robots or no robots, jobs or no jobs — a lot of the world’s problems would sort themselves out. Dom reckons I’ve lost the plot completely.

What’s your take? Settle it once and for all.

Talk soon, Bitcoins for Everyone

​Dear Bitcoins for Everyone,

Every month, more letters land on my desk than I could possibly answer, and I only have room for one. Most months, the choice makes itself easily enough. Yours nearly didn’t make the cut — a pub argument about economic policy is not, on the face of it, agony aunt material.

Then I reached the line about “robots or no robots, jobs or no jobs,” and I stopped.

That’s not a man arguing fiscal policy with his mate over a pint. That’s a man rehearsing the question what happens to me if there’s nothing left for me to do? Tiny 2 clearly heard that question too.

As for whether universal basic income would solve the world’s problems, that’s not a question I’m equipped to settle, and I’m not convinced anyone fully is. Every economist who’s ever attempted an answer seems to land somewhere different, so don’t hold out for consensus on my account. What I can tell you is that the argument you’re actually having with Dom isn’t about budgets. It’s about whether you’ll still matter in a world that no longer needs your particular set of skills.

You will. Worlds have a habit of needing people in ways spreadsheets don’t predict. But you didn’t write me a letter about that. You wrote to me about resolving an argument. So, here’s my advice: buy Dom a pint, and this time leave the policy briefing at home. Tell him what’s really troubling you. He might surprise you. Mates usually do, once you let them.

Yours, with no AI assistance whatsoever,

Geraldine