The site used to make some of the diagrams on this article is pretty cool: https://excalidraw.com/
Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
121–130 of 1001 posts
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#122I 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…
Having nearly unlimited free garbage removal is probably more than a problem than people realize.
UBI means you can actually evaluate the system you live in and determine what's necessary (and then pay more for it). At the moment it's all "jobs jobs jobs" - we have entire federal agencies that are essentially jobs programs (Homeland Security is a great example... they've done almost literally nothing).
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#123I 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…
Yeah, we don't need people to work. This will incentivize people to automate work where possible. The ideal world is everything is automated and EVERYONE benefits, vs what we have now: much is automated and the rich benefit while others have to work shit jobs or die.
Automate everything? Who builds and repairs the robots?
And who gets stuck with that job when everyone else doesn’t have to work?
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#124I 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…
If those jobs are so critical those people should be paid more. If UBI is how it's done, then so be it.
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#125Why give free money to everyone? Clearly a rich person doesn’t need a monthly check from government... Milton Friedman long ago proposed a negative income tax to replace means-tested welfare programs. Essentially, people below a certain income threshold would receive money which scales to a maximum the closer their income approaches zero. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_income_tax I do think people radically…
Income tax requires income.
UBI doesn't.
Policing benefits hurts the poor, not the rich.
Where people would otherwise have no income UBI will increase spending. Where they don't it has other benefits. But if you want to save that cash then that's also good.
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#126I understand and agree with how a UBI will benefit those that are currently falling between the cracks and not receiving any assistance. I can also see the benefits of greatly simplifying the social security system. (If it was implemented in a way that was actually simple. i.e. no distinction between sick, unemployed, old, lazy) But I don't understand why people don't believe the UBI will just become the new definiti…
Exactly. The key to making people happier is not to give them money, but create more jobs that give people meaning and purpose in their lives.
How will those jobs be created without becoming "Bullshit Jobs" and workfare?
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#127I understand and agree with how a UBI will benefit those that are currently falling between the cracks and not receiving any assistance. I can also see the benefits of greatly simplifying the social security system. (If it was implemented in a way that was actually simple. i.e. no distinction between sick, unemployed, old, lazy) But I don't understand why people don't believe the UBI will just become the new definiti…
Exactly. The key to making people happier is not to give them money, but create more jobs that give people meaning and purpose in their lives.
Why does someone's purpose in life defined by their job? What if someone wants to make music or art? Or pursue some kind of other field that doesn't pay particularly well. Why do all Americans think that the point of your life is to work at a job for a majority of it?
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#128UBI is extremely dangerous as long as governments exist. Take what China is doing with their citizen score and it's not hard to imagine what could go wrong. "...imagine how easy it would be for such a government that was also providing a basic income to its citizens to manipulate their citizens based on that basic income that they depended on. If they can deny citizens access to things like public transportation base…
Do you feel the same way about foodstamps? This isn't an argument against UBI, it's an argument against any kind of government provided assistance at all.
Not only that, it's an argument against all forms of taxation. What if the government starts setting your tax rate based on your "social credit score"?
It's purely speculative FUD. It would be terrible if they did that, so make sure they don't. But it's a completely independent problem.
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#129UBI is extremely dangerous as long as governments exist. Take what China is doing with their citizen score and it's not hard to imagine what could go wrong. "...imagine how easy it would be for such a government that was also providing a basic income to its citizens to manipulate their citizens based on that basic income that they depended on. If they can deny citizens access to things like public transportation base…
Alaska UBI is a cautionary tale:
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/9/5/20849020/alaska-...
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#130UBI is extremely dangerous as long as governments exist. Take what China is doing with their citizen score and it's not hard to imagine what could go wrong. "...imagine how easy it would be for such a government that was also providing a basic income to its citizens to manipulate their citizens based on that basic income that they depended on. If they can deny citizens access to things like public transportation base…
That’s literally the “universal” part of it. If you don’t have that, you don’t have UBI. The fact that the government has the physical power to withhold a hypothetical UBI might be an issue, of course, but every government has the physical power to do pretty much anything to any citizen, so there’s nothing unique there.