GDP is a bad metric. The planet does not have unlimited resources to fuel unlimited growth.
True, but the solar system can probably meet all our growth for the indefinite future.
Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
331–340 of 1001 posts
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#332I’m for UBI as long as it is actually universal and EVERYONE receives it and we remove all other government sponsored financial aid and remove all the other supporting institutions. It would mean we no longer need to pay people to decide who receives money and who doesn’t.
I support this because it’s fair for all and much harder to game.
I also support this because it would be a net neutral outcome . Basically people would just get their money back.
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#333A UBI paid for with a carbon tax would both save us from the worst consequences of global warming and stimulate the economy. It's hard to find a rational excuse for not doing it. Planet Money did a great episode on this idea over 7 years ago: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/07/12/201502003/epis... They did a followup 5 years later: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/07/18/630267782/epis... It seems like…
You tax something you want to reduce. Since carbon emissions are associated with most travel and great-tasting food, it sounds like paying people to sit at home, watch TV and drink themselves into depression.
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#334UBI 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…
I find it rather hard to take seriously the writings of someone (Karel Donk) who believes that Hitler was good and that the holocaust never happened.
But I'll answer this anyway. UBI is unconditional. If a cash payment depends on the recipient's behaviour, it wouldn't be UBI. The same amount would be paid to everyone of working age.
Why mention China here? Something very similar happens in the UK with benefit sanctions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobseeker%27s_Allowance#Sancti...
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#335People don’t need money. People need basics like housing, food, and medical care. No UBI scheme is going to work in an economic system like the one in the U.S. that isn’t capable of providing those things. It’s not like there’s a shortage of food or shelter now and yet we still have homeless people while homes sit empty. We still have hungry people while farmers are destroying their crops. The economic system is the…
Our economic system isn't what limits housing supply in the USA, it is NIMBY local government policies.
I think a lot of that needs the modifier of 'in cities.' There's cheap housing out there but so many jobs require living in or around a city.
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#336A UBI paid for with a carbon tax would both save us from the worst consequences of global warming and stimulate the economy. It's hard to find a rational excuse for not doing it. Planet Money did a great episode on this idea over 7 years ago: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/07/12/201502003/epis... They did a followup 5 years later: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/07/18/630267782/epis... It seems like…
Henry George had it right: Use land value tax to fund UBI. Abracadabra, all the birds get killed with one stone: Real estate prices calm down, income inequality calms down, environmental costs are valued into use, and poverty is eliminated.
So grandma who lives on a lot with a single family home gets a $50,000 annual tax bill to incentivize the building of a 400 unit apartment building?
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#337I 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…
As I understand it, UBI isn't about making people feel better, it's about providing a floor for income. It would be intended to assist those who struggle to pay their bills and afford basic necessities. There are homes today that don't have internet because of financial reasons. Additionally, it could enable those who'd want to pursue entrepreneurial ventures but can't afford to go 2-3 months without a paycheck to do…
> There are homes today that don't have internet because of financial reasons.
Homes today don't have internet because of market reasons. Artificial monopolies, lobbying, and decades and billions of dollars spent by the government in failed and incomplete projects have created the current situation. And now without net-neutrality, it's getting even worse. This is all because of policy not finances.
> All UBI would be doing is establishing a floor. Right now, that floor is zero and results in many very unfortunate situations.
The floor today is not zero. Go to a village in Africa, or the Amazon rainforest if you want to see what zero really is.
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#338[deleted]
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#339Let's say I'm a landlord. If you give my tenant $1000/month, I'll just take it. Their rent is now R+1000 next year.
You could tax the $1000 back away from me, but that doesn't stop the price from rising. It actually just boosts my incentive to take every last cent of the $1000 that I can extract.
I think you all need to think more about the economics. You have to be willing, on rational grounds, to step away from free markets in some other way in order to make this viable.
Re: Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
#340There are a lot of people here dissenting on the idea of UBI on the premise that they find meaning in work, and to take the incentive to work away will lead others (themselves included) not to have meaning in life. I’ve taken a year off of work to start a business that failed and spent the past few months hanging out with my kids. At first, my stress levels were high because daycares were shut down and I was panickin…
The problem I see with that is that if a huge number of people take that route and happily (let's assume) live their lives without working, they lose access to the ability to participate in a meaningful way in the economy by producing something of value; if they're not producing value, no one is going to value them, and they'll eventually be locked out of the new, smaller elite group that controls the means of produc…
From a nilhistic point of view, isn't most work already performed by human useless and pointless in both the grand and minor scale? I do agree that my observation even from the Covid lockdown, is that many people's default state to pursue is activities with 'ease or non-challenged' rather than 'difficult '. To me, Covid lockdown proved why UBI was a bad idea.
If humans have free time, they create dance videos on Tik-tok.