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An Engineering Argument for Basic Income

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Re: An Engineering Argument for Basic Income

#7

Post by jandrewrogers »

This is a naive engineering argument in that it assumes a simple closed system when in reality it is an open system that does not even usefully approximate as a closed system. There are material tradeoffs being made that are not even acknowledged as a consequence. Several failure modes have simply been placed outside the system by definition to make the problem seem easier.

I am sympathetic to the idea of UBI but there is no trivial engineering argument for it. It is a system with many poor characteristics from an engineering perspective that would need to be addressed in any design that makes a claim of robustness.

Re: An Engineering Argument for Basic Income

#8

Post by leetcrew »

tengbretson wrote: post #4

I think a good place to start would be to not have the average American be 6 figures in debt.

this is true, but kinda misleading. a very large portion of that 6 figure debt is going to be a mortgage on a home. as long as you're not upside-down and you can afford the monthly payments, it's not bad to have a mortgage. you have to go down to the tenth percentile of american households to find negative net worths. of course, net worth doesn't tell the whole story either, but it's a lot better than presenting debt loads without balancing it against assets held.
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