I think the transition will be important. Once we're all in networked holodecks and given food replicators, things will be fine(ish). Social currency is really a great motivator, the urge to entertain (and be liked) is always present. Anyone on rpg.net who puts the least bit of thought into making their post entertaining understands, whether it's thoughtful or funny, it's crafted in order to generate some type of social currency.
I think the transition is the hardest part. Socially, we do value work. I have to currently tell people I am unemployed, and it's not easy, seeing their noses wrinkle. I've been thinking about this hard, nearly posted to rpg.net many times. I don't see a solution other than deliberately inefficient workfare. And that needs to be funded using progressive taxation. The workfare should either generate some social good, or better, correct some market inefficiency. The hardest part will be the deliberate inefficiency. We like to get a bang for our buck. The free market rewards that type of innovation, and we encourage the public sector to do so too. If we can get a team of pothole fixers to fix more quickly, we'd like them to, please.
Inefficiences can disappear as we invent/discover new forms of morally valuable workfare. Morale-wise, not moral-wise. Plus, it would be awesome if they created public goods.
The demand-side benefit of workfare will disappear. Eventually you're using more and more of your paycheque to rent time from some network of robots so that the uber-rich and collect that income. The uber-rich will continue to modify their products and services to compete for the consumer dollar of Joe Potholefixer. But Joe's purchases will cause increasingly less employment.
Straight out welfare would be nearly as good. Two downsides: (a) less ability to correct market failures and (b) the shitstorm of offense when people think that other people are getting something for free. The uberrich would still continue to compete for our consumer dollars that was given to us through progressive taxation, but I personally think that avoiding the shitstorm is valuable. It's there, sitting as an obstacle. No amount of angry blogging can eliminate it. Certainly not quickly enough.
So, my recommendation: workfare. And increasing number of workfare projects, with intentional inefficiencies that can be eliminated as more workfare projects are discovered. The department of lolcat production (with its quota of 20 funny lolcats per day) can get photoshop (and layoffs) once the department of playing with kids gets moving into full swing. The goal here is employment and a nod to creating a societally useful product.
The feeling of performing valuable work is an important one. We can use a lot of feedback from people we like ("lol!"). We can use our own internal morals (satisfaction in a job well done). We can even (though few people do this) just use the Free Market as validation; if someone is paying you to do something, then there are really strong odds they find important at least to them.
It's nice when all three align. I greatly enjoy being a rich attorney who's respected for suing large corporations when they trounce welfare mom's rights. Or a pediatric cardiac surgeon who can afford yearly Caribbean cruises. I'm not one, obviously, so rarely do all three of those (above) align. You might wonder why you should be proud you can align and collate Excel spreadsheets, for example.
It's why I think the intentional workfare needs to have some obvious social benefit. Digging and filling ditches isn't as emotionally satisfying as keeping your boots polished feeling like you're contributing to your nations defense. Or even hand-filling potholes a few times a day.
