Jack Dorsey is giving Andrew Yang $5M to build the case for a basic income
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Re: Jack Dorsey is giving Andrew Yang $5M to build the case for a basic income
#2Given everything that is going on, the case should be fairly straight forward to build. In fact, Yang has bene on top of it since Covid19 took hold in America.
I truly hope UBI gains more popularity and strength going forward.
Re: Jack Dorsey is giving Andrew Yang $5M to build the case for a basic income
#3Why can’t we outsource basic income to the private sector? Like VCs who give money to people who want to sit at home instead of lighting money on fire to exploit taxi drivers?
Re: Jack Dorsey is giving Andrew Yang $5M to build the case for a basic income
#4Given everything that is going on, the case should be fairly straight forward to build. In fact, Yang has bene on top of it since Covid19 took hold in America. I truly hope UBI gains more popularity and strength going forward.
UBI has a lot of practical problems. Why not start at universal health care or wider affordability of affordable housing and education? Without that any UBI will immediately be eaten up by rising prices in these areas.
Re: Jack Dorsey is giving Andrew Yang $5M to build the case for a basic income
#5I don’t think there is any good way to test UBI at any small scale, I think there needs to be a critical mass of people who can pay their housing and food costs how society and economic activity would be reshaped under such a system.
Re: Jack Dorsey is giving Andrew Yang $5M to build the case for a basic income
#6Given everything that is going on, the case should be fairly straight forward to build. In fact, Yang has bene on top of it since Covid19 took hold in America. I truly hope UBI gains more popularity and strength going forward.
UBI has a lot of practical problems. Why not start at universal health care or wider affordability of affordable housing and education? Without that any UBI will immediately be eaten up by rising prices in these areas.
That's a common urban legend. The free market drives prices down, when demand goes up for flexible markets.
It's easy to throw one or two economic terms around, but its a lot more complicated than 'people have more money == prices rise'.
Re: Jack Dorsey is giving Andrew Yang $5M to build the case for a basic income
#7Maybe he can use it to endorse another moderate Democrat who would never dream of enacting such a policy.
Re: Jack Dorsey is giving Andrew Yang $5M to build the case for a basic income
#8Which is incredibly charitable! Opponents to UBI only oppose the income source being tax; which is a forced wealth transfer (opposite of my money my choice).
Re: Jack Dorsey is giving Andrew Yang $5M to build the case for a basic income
#9I don’t think there is any good way to test UBI at any small scale, I think there needs to be a critical mass of people who can pay their housing and food costs how society and economic activity would be reshaped under such a system.
US centric opinion:
Social Security and Medicare are already UBI at large scale, but age tested (62 is the minimum age, 70 the max for social security benefits, age 65 qualified you for Medicare, US universal healthcare for seniors). Caveat: you needed to have worked and earned certain amounts to qualify for Medicare and your benefits level.
To test at small scale, you'd need an endowment that would use the investment returns to pay folks their UBI, and then payroll taxes that would include OSDI so they'd gracefully land onto Social Security and Medicare when they reach the age that qualified them. Pick small cohorts: students in their early 20s, some middle age folks mid career, and folks near the end of their career in dead end industries (ie coal). Observe and report.
If you can "cross the chasm" (see: companies going remote first after being forced to see if it can be done with COVID), it then becomes PR getting an audience with the Fed and Congress to rejigger monetary and fiscal policy to print and distribute accordingly. Can't see we can't print, money printer is running exceedingly fast right now [1], but can we put that money in the pockets of average citizens instead of simply inflating asset values of the richest Americans? That's the question.
Re: Jack Dorsey is giving Andrew Yang $5M to build the case for a basic income
#10What is the actual case for Basic Income? I hear that it 'solves' the problem of automation ... except that it doesn't actually solve it AT ALL. If automation will lead to high unemployment, basic income will do nothing for that. It will send cash to people who aren't working so they can provide for basic necessities, but our welfare state already does that. And we know that segments of society that are wholly dependent on government suffer despair, drug/alcohol abuse and crime - UBI does nothing to solve that either.
And of course, UBI in rich nations does nothing for the third world, which will be hit HARDER by automation and doesn't have the wealth to give every citizen cash.
There are also major structural ambiguities with Basic Income that are glossed over by supporters, namely the libertarian-types think that it will replace the welfare state, and progressives/leftists AT BEST think that it will complement the welfare state (i.e. that segment will NOT allow UBI to replace any of their cherished social programs). So if UBI has any chance of broad support, it will not save a dime, but rather add a tremendous amount to government spending.
In the end, UBI solves nothings and comes with its own set of baggage.