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Request For Research: Basic Income

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Request For Research: Basic Income

#591

Post by Kluny »

greedo wrote: post #365
harryh wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great list! I will, selfishly, riff on you 6th point to add: * Modern logistics-driven solutions for inexpensive high-quality elder care. If working this sort of thing sounds interesting to anyone then check out hometeamcare.com and ping me. We're hiring for basically every role in the company. It's a very interesting business!

Both child and elder care are very labor intensive (assuming you don't want to just warehouse bodies). Perhaps robotics with fantastic AI will improve things in the future, but I'm skeptical.

Good - it's one of few jobs where humans are needed and robots aren't a good enough substitute. Maybe we can soak up some unemployment that way.

Re: Request For Research: Basic Income

#594

Post by Kluny »

cookiecaper wrote: post #455
jacalata wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Joke answer: totally, if you're going to play seriously! Serious answer: besides the ongoing need of the 'elite' for childcare, most proponents of basic income argue that people would not just play video games all day. If you think about everything you or other people might want to do in your free time today, even - how many of those would you prefer to do without simultaneously minding children?

>Serious answer: besides the ongoing need of the 'elite' for childcare, most proponents of basic income argue that people would not just play video games all day. Unfortunately this is not the case. What do students who live on student loans and/or parental stipend as a "basic income" do? You can expect more of that when the government becomes the parent doling out the stipend.

Students are busy - they are attending classes, doing homework and studying for tests. When they have free time, it's unsurprising that they don't have much excess mental energy or money for pursuing hobbies. And even then it seems to me that a lot of activist groups are mainly student-run. So I don't think you're right.

Re: Request For Research: Basic Income

#595

Post by [deleted] »

fijal wrote: post #498
tptacek wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a big believer in minimizing college debt. I'm a believer in minimizing college . People who grow up in wealthy families naturally find themselves on a college track that seamlessly routes them to elite schools when they're 18 years old. People who grow up in poverty aren't on that track and might not even have much agency (due to their circumstances, requirements to work young, entanglements with the law) un…

College in Poland is free and there are options for very limited stipends which can sustain you (albeit on a poverty level). That did lift me from a poor, but educated, family into the world of computer software and a relatively successful career it seems. As it did for countless of my peers. Please don't discount free education as "not changing much", in the US I would be probably working at Mc Donalds or dealing cr…

[deleted]

Re: Request For Research: Basic Income

#596

Post by nraynaud »

kdamken wrote: post #522
nraynaud wrote: post #292

I hope It's not coming back to bite me in the ass to say that, but I have been slacking and collecting unemployment benefits in the last few years. During this time I have re-kindled my interest in mechanics and electronics, bought and changed the electronics of a CNC router, learned to use it, learned a bit of woodworking, created the control software and tool path planning system ( https://github.com/nraynaud/webgc…

Question - how did you collect benefits for so long? The two times I was able to collect, the max was 6 months. I agree with you 100%. The time I spent on unemployment was very spiritually fulfilling and really helped with my career. I got into running, learned how to produce music, and taught myself to code.

I had one year without benefits, and the rest is because there is such a high unemployment country and such a high ratio unemployed/agency employees, that they can't really control anything.

Re: Request For Research: Basic Income

#598

Post by branchless »

Eridrus wrote: post #178
surfmike wrote: post #97

"What can startups do to increase prosperity for everyone?" I think cheap quality housing is a huge area that would help everyone. Taxes and housing together eat up the vast majority of the earnings most people make. What could make a difference? - applying technology to building denser housing. for example, imagine cheap robotic excavation, so every house and building could bury all their parking lots and long term…

Regardless of basic income, fixing housing is super important since it's one of the biggest drains on everyone's income and the fixed nature of it suggests that just giving everyone more money will cause a lot of that money to just end up in landlord's pockets. I think a lot of the change must be policy change though and cannot be purely free-market oriented since there is a public interest in seeing more housing sto…

So much this. We've see this over and over. If we get more productive the rentiers take it. We need to squash the rentier starting with land value tax. And stop taxing labour.

Then you have the true choice because you can achieve financial autonomy through work and then tell the man where he can stick his job if he refuses to pass on enough of your value added.

Cheaper land will see less people forced to work which will mean higher wages and more disposable income. And all the people doing nothing other than "investing" in extorting money from workers for the right to occupy space will have to suck it up.

This topic basically terrifies me. When I see people asking for basic income without addressing land issues (and money creation) it just shows they are on the wrong track. Big time. Basic income will just become "landlord income". In the UK we have "housing benefit" which sets a floor on rent and guarantees land owners get more than the market can support. It's "landlord benefit".

Re: Request For Research: Basic Income

#599

Post by dyim »

marknutter wrote: post #548

If you want to see basic income in action, look no further than the various Native American tribes who operate casinos throughout the country. The results are not pretty [1]. [1] http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21639547-how-cas...

Perhaps - I wish the article went into more detail on annual disbursement size across the different tribes. It could be the case that certain basic incomes exacerbate poverty (e.g. the $1200 that Mike Justice receives from the Siletz tribe), while other basic incomes (say, hypothetically, 1.5x the poverty line) drastically improve quality of life.

Re: Request For Research: Basic Income

#600

Post by brudgers »

tptacek wrote: post #170

Things that would help everyone, regardless of income, without depending on a radical restructuring of entitlement spending, that seem like things startups could actually do: * Equally credible alternatives to university education for professions that don't involve students shouldering $100k-$200k in debt based on decisions they have to make when they're 18 years old. * Empirical, blinded, skills-assessment based tur…

None of the ideas address basic income. They are incremental not quantum. I think that reflects the difficulty in changing our frame of reference from what is to what might be.
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