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Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0

timjrobinson.com

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Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0

#51

I can get paid to write code nobody uses?! Sign me up! Zero users and loving it!

You can already do that in most places by just applying for welfare payments and making a fake effort to get a job. The thing is that working a real programming job pays a lot more.

Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0

#52

Won’t it just be negated with increased cost of living? If people get 1000 a month free, you better believe that rent starts at 1000. The free money will never do what it’s supposed to do in the long run. It’s better to just give the actual service for free (healthcare, college, transportation).

Why would UBI raise rents? The cost of rent is based on supply and demand, and UBI doesn’t make people need more bedrooms.

Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0

#53

[flagged]

Its the opposite of truth. Which isn't a lie its just saying the opposite of facts.

The fact is less people suffer every year, the economy in the west had its biggest expansion every, and there more fruit especially in america than ever.

Every single thing we know about redistribution of wealth does the exact thing he said. Where is his proof.

Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0

#54

most of the middle eastern countries have UBI. Hasnt really done anything for them

I wonder why people tend to ignore de facto near UBI in those places (for citizens).

And since no one (citizens who get de facto UBI) wants to work, they have to import labor.

Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0

#55
There is not going to be a Capitalism 2.0. Capitalism was progressive for a time, but it has gradually created the conditions for its replacement by democratic socialism. Those conditions are highly socialized production processes (not individual crafts) plus a gigantic class of wage laborers with an interest in a collective approach. A democratically planned economy is entirely possible and would outpace the massive waste and duplication of efforts that capitalism requires to function. Even the bureaucratically degenerated USSR grew to an economic superpower. Imagine what genuine democracy in the plan could accomplish in terms of meetings peoples' real needs.

Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0

#56

I can’t help but think that UBI would distort job markets. Let’s pick an example of a “sucky job” (and I say this as just an example, I realize these guys work hard and are vital). A garbage man. He get’s paid $42k a year because they have to find people who would be willing to do this sucky job and need to pay higher than minimum wage to do so. At some point of income, people would be willing to accept the suckiness…

[flagged]

Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0

#57

GDP is a bad metric. The planet does not have unlimited resources to fuel unlimited growth.

Unlimited resources, No, but technology can overcome any perceived resource shortage. Think of the discovery of fertilizer by the Germans around the same time that people were claiming there wasn’t enough food to feed everyone. People still claim that, but we can even foresee the technological changes coming to fix that - genetic engineering of crops, mass produced, lab grown nutrition, insects for protein, on and on.

Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0

#58
post #52

Won’t it just be negated with increased cost of living? If people get 1000 a month free, you better believe that rent starts at 1000. The free money will never do what it’s supposed to do in the long run. It’s better to just give the actual service for free (healthcare, college, transportation).

Why would UBI raise rents? The cost of rent is based on supply and demand, and UBI doesn’t make people need more bedrooms.

The rent prices are high (low supply), so whoever has the most money gets it. If you only have 1000 from UBI, but the guy next to you has 1000 plus the 1000 from UBI, guess what the new price is?

Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0

#59
I think UBI would be disastrous for society even if it's perfectly implemented, which in a democracy is nigh impossible because there are too many stakeholders fighting for a piece of the pie. To think that you could replace entrenched welfare schemes with a flat sum sent to each citizen (?) and for it to be relatively successful is a pipe dream. For example, our disastrous healthcare system is a direct result of an afterthought FDR-era program. There are simply too many negative externalities to consider.

You don't need to reinvent the wheel in order to "fix" capitalism. Our current problem is that the 1% are taking too much of the pie for themselves. This has led to increased corporatization, reduction in competition as companies merge and there's less players in any particular field, this results in the white-collar service class being beholden to their corporations, making it unable for them to save enough money to spin off and start their own small and medium sized businesses which would create more jobs for people lower on the economic rungs of society. In effect capitalism is working a little too well/efficiently as the owners of capital are using their entrenched power to squeeze more production/efficiency out of employees, which forces employees to stay employees instead of business owners.

This problem can be fixed by tweaking the tax code and some other small changes at the federal level. You don't need to effectively reboot the system to make capitalism work again for the 99%.

Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0

#60

[flagged]

Its the opposite of truth. Which isn't a lie its just saying the opposite of facts. The fact is less people suffer every year, the economy in the west had its biggest expansion every, and there more fruit especially in america than ever. Every single thing we know about redistribution of wealth does the exact thing he said. Where is his proof.

yes because the suicide rate increasing and the abuse of alcohol and drugs and life style deaths is less suffering. what fantasy land are you in?
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