Why do you want people to work? Is there a stack of widgets going unmade that desperately needs to be made? Are we fighting a two-ocean war and I missed it?
Right now half of the country is trying to work and there aren't enough jobs for them. It's 2015. What the hell was the point of the past century of technological improvement if we all still have to have jobs our whole adult lives?
This is a complex idea, not without a large amount of challenges.
However as a citizen and programmer, I would rather see more things being automated, and instead of more unemployment, people could either not work, or find work they are more passionate about.
Just imagine if everyone that decided they want to not sit around all day, actually was working on something they were passionate about.
I just completely don't buy the "people wouldn't work" thing. Yes, you'd probably have to pay some menial work more to motivate people to do it (or, even better, spur technological development to automate that), but that's a feature, not a bug.