Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0

I'm incredulous that an article which states, "Even if you're still doubtful you can see it's the least worst [sic] solution we have to make capitalism work in the 21st century." is getting this many upvotes. HN has a reputation as an evidence-valuing rational community that appreciates articulate arguments. I guess that these principles do not apply when we are talking about UBI (or when accusing Apple of business practices they do not engage in, apparently https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23995750)

It's obvious that the author doesn't have more than an introductory macroeconomics course under his belt. The article reads like something an idealistic first-year undergraduate might try to pass off. It is full of cliches and incredibly bold statements with no citations used to prop up a flimsy argument.

For example:

"[The increasing size of markets] is why wealth inequality soared when capitalism went global in the 20th century." The increasing size of markets may be a factor in inequality, but it is certainly not the only one. Also, a graph would be nice. Inequality was higher in the late 19th century and took a dip in the early-to-mid 19th century. Without seeing this data, it is foolish to make sure a sweeping generalization.

"If we can give companies overwhelming demand so they have to scale up production instead of spending all their money on advertising, we can have both happy companies making profit hand over fist, and happy consumers who get everything they desire." First, the phrases "Happy companies", "profit hand over fist", "happy customers", "everything they desire" sound like they were written by a 12-year-old. Second, money is an abstraction used to allocate goods from production to consumption. When production does not match consumption, this causes either excess inventory or shortages - neither of which are desirable, but both of which tend to resolve themselves quickly. One of the often-stated goals of UBI is to free workers from unfulfilling labor. However, labor is an essential factor in production, and by "freeing" labor, we will reduce production. Since consumption is equal to production, workers will not be able to magically "get everything they desire." In fact, they might get less.

It's so insane this isn't mentioned because we are living in a time of basically UBI. The govt is giving unemployed people astronomical amounts of money.

I have friends in the restaurant industry, they lost their jobs from COVID. Then, when restaurants started offering curbside, delivery or togo, they needed people again. But my friends said 'No" to their old jobs because they were making $900/week from unemployment. Same thing for Uber Drivers, and many more industries.

And guess what happens when the economy adjusts to the trillion-dollar bailout? Hyper-inflation. So all that money is going to be worth a fraction of what it was before.

And with all this UBI happening right now, guess what they do in their spare time? They get drunk and high and riot. That's what we've created with UBI. And when the other show drops, who's going to be left with the bill? Not me, I invested all my bailout money.