My home country has a population that’s too big for the economy, so most people live in squatter camps and build homes out of scrap wood and sheet metal. The government provides public toilets (often portable because of land ownership issues) for about 100 people to one toilet. They eat subsidised (and fortified) maize for most meals and wash with buckets when it isn’t too cold. Meat is reserved for holidays where it’s typically a gift/bonus from employers. Emergency services can’t enter the camps safely because they’re attacked and robbed, so mob justice is the rule. Neighbours sometimes try to have one another arrested (or killed) so they can steal their shack and possessions. People commute from these camps into the suburbs to clean toilets for <$10 a day. There are waiting lists to work at McDonalds. Meanwhile 20km away is a gated community with private security where the business owners and ministers live in mansions.

None of this is an exaggeration. Everyone is outraged about it, and there are often riots but they’re put down with tear gas and rubber bullets. So every day the sun and GDP continue to rise.

To me this is the only realistic long term outcome of mass unemployment if the tech companies’ visions are realised. UBI is a fantasy. Everyone in the camps is on welfare, it just isn’t enough.

Where is this? At first I guessed India. Now I am uncertain.