Because eventually every job is going to be automated whether we want them to be automated or not. Raising the minimum wage is a stepping stone. Eventually, a universal basic income will become necessary as the job market shrinks even more and more people are born. Taxi drivers, gas stations, bus drivers, cashiers, cooks, servers, etc. etc. will no longer exist. Only robots. We need to start thinking about how we want to restructure our society. A society with 340 million people and only a few thousand jobs available is not possible for our society to function. The poor will become extremely poor while a few rich get extremely rich. We are seeing a little bit of that transition now with the rise of automation in recent years. Eventually, we will reach the point where humans don't need to work at all. Robots will be running everything, and making more robots. Humans will just exist. Live. Do what they want with no need to worry about work, food, water etc. So, what are humans to do? How can wealth be earned if no jobs become available? Money will be obsolete, so people will have to find wealth in other ways. We will have to redefine wealth. My guess is entertainment. Creativity. Pleasure. Such emotions will become the new currency. I believe concepts like this are explored in "A Brave New World." Automation is on the rise. It's already here. We need to adapt.