If a universal basic income started today with the stipulation that you had to put 40 hrs/wk towards making the world a better place or solving societal problems, how would you spend your time?
That is just so nebulous that you could almost do anything.
I am a hobby phographer, and I consider my photos mere existance as making the world a sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiightly better place.
I won't pretend that I am amazing at photography, but some fantastic pictures would not exist without me, there would absolutely be almost identical photos in existance, but not mine.
I like driving, so I guess I could be a driver for road trips in Europe, not in a bus, but in an estate car, artisenal road trips as you say, that would provide more good to the world than me just going to road trips alone and keeping most photos to myself.
Where is the threshhold for what is considered good to get the money?
I think that's reasonable. If your motivation is not to get some corporate chump to pay you enough to avoid starvation, I think its a good answer. Authentic culture is a "good" thing for the world and art is culture.