Experiments in dense, but attractive housing are probably the gatekeeper to affordable housing. I don't see this talked about much. Affordable housing is a good goal, but until it can be done in a very dense way, it cannot compete with other schemes. One idea I have is to run genetic algorithms to create housing schemes that would seek to maximize sunlight, and privacy. The plan needs strong focus on sound proofing and technology to reintroduce ambient sound when desired. The plan would also balance the exposure of inhabitance to each other in their comings and goings and in their use of common areas. Finally, the scheme would seek to keep public as much of the area as possible to make it competitive for commerce and livelihood compared to other parts of the surrounding environment.
Request For Research: Basic Income
101–110 of 1001 posts
Re: Request For Research: Basic Income
#102The top reasons I support the Basic Income concept: 1. It provides a safety net for the most vulnerable in a society. 2. As automation and wealth inequality increase we will need a system in place to deal with mass unemployment. 3. Not being accepted at a job offer can affect the mental health of a person. Basic income gives people time to re-educate. 4. If it works for the royal family it can work for all of us. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/07/basic-i....
Re: Request For Research: Basic Income
#103What's in it for YC?
YCR is a non-profit; we just think this is important and interesting. Though if it does turn out, years down the road, that basic income happens, I suspect we'd get more people starting companies and that would obviously be good for YC.
Re: Request For Research: Basic Income
#104Basic income sounds like a very good idea.
As a teenager, I saw this news blurb from the George Bush presidential campaign. A woman (single mother) was working three jobs to make ends meet and the audience engaged in a massive circlejerk. Couldn't help think about the incredible waste of a life - soul-sucking jobs that ensure this person doesn't move up economic classes, has no time to focus on self-improvement and gets to provide no attention to family. And then the next generation continues this cycle.
In the 21st century - we must change our approach to governance - dignity for everyone.
Re: Request For Research: Basic Income
#105There's a very relevant section in this book ( The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies - http://amzn.to/1KFJ1Iu ) , that I just read last night: > "His view is strongly supported by the work of economist Andrew Oswald, who found that joblessness lasting six months or longer harms feelings of well-being and other measures of mental health about as much as the death of…
I've always wondered if its actually the joblessness that degrades people's self worth or the job search that must not be going to well and thus keeps them jobless. Would a person without a job but with a basic income and thus not feeling pressure to get a job experience the same hit to their self worth?
The reduced sense of self-worth is likely a result of the cultural stigma against joblessness.
Hopefully, merely collecting a universal/basic income will not be similarly stigmatized.
Re: Request For Research: Basic Income
#106It's worth reading about the Canadian experiments with basic income in the 1970s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mincome http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/colby-cosh-what-th... The experiment allowed households to opt out, and after a while most did. However this result is convoluted by the fact that the income was not inflation indexed, and inflation rates in Canada in the 1970s got quite high. The main concl…
In the USA, if Basic Income were to be implemented, where would the money come from? Currently the rate of monetary inflation is quite high- we've gone from $11T to $18T in the monetary system during the Obama administration. If we were to start printing even more money to pay people a basic income, this monetary inflation would cause prices to rise to wipe out the benefit of the program, most likely.
In fact, the reason people are suffering now is the level of monetary inflation (Which has been high going back to the Reagan era, so it's the fault of both parties. This is not a partisan issue- it's an economics one. And the problem is that politicians get elected by promising stuff, but to produce the stuff, they can't raise taxes, so they do the equivalent by printing money.)
Re: Request For Research: Basic Income
#107$10,000 * US_POPULATION ~= $3.2T ~= The total annual tax revenue of the US federal government. Something to keep in mind when discussing this topic.
But that number is misleading. I have a spouse and three children. Does that mean we all will get 10K/yr? I have had a different thought on this in the past; Every child born should have $10K put into an account in their name on the day they are born. It will gain interest and grow until they are 18, then they get the money. And as an adult after 21, they are taxed at some rate to pay back the initial 10K that will t…
"Down on your luck? No problem. We understand that terrible things happen to people just like you all the time. But did you know there is a way out? Just sign right here and we'll provide an annuity based on your child's 'right to help' income. After all, what's good for you is good for them too!"
Re: Request For Research: Basic Income
#108Stop thinking of startups as "startups" and instead as businesses. The whole startup mentality of prizing growth and valuation, at least from the outside, seems greedy, rapacious and unsustainable.
Re: Request For Research: Basic Income
#109There's a very relevant section in this book ( The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies - http://amzn.to/1KFJ1Iu ) , that I just read last night: > "His view is strongly supported by the work of economist Andrew Oswald, who found that joblessness lasting six months or longer harms feelings of well-being and other measures of mental health about as much as the death of…
I've always wondered if its actually the joblessness that degrades people's self worth or the job search that must not be going to well and thus keeps them jobless. Would a person without a job but with a basic income and thus not feeling pressure to get a job experience the same hit to their self worth?
There's not going to be an answer, of course.
I think a good source of data could be the population of retired people. I'm pretty sure if I could afford to be retired, I could easily keep busy the rest of my life.
Re: Request For Research: Basic Income
#110[deleted]