What If Andrew Yang Was Right?
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What If Andrew Yang Was Right?
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Re: What If Andrew Yang Was Right?
#2I'm not sure there's a "what if" at all, more like a "when will".
At some point, a UBI will become a necessity. The most likely other options are a dystopian nightmare or a complete overhaul of our basic economic principles (i.e. a post-scarcity Star Trek-esque society)
Re: What If Andrew Yang Was Right?
#3The interview here is compelling. Yang's book is even more compelling.
But what Yang doesn't do here or in his book is make a powerful case to fiscal conservative spelling out just how universal income will avoid demolishing the economy through inflation. Until this happens, UBI is going nowhere.
Although COVID-19 is on everyone's minds right now, it wasn't too long ago that Venezuela, its hyperinflation, and empty stores were the topic of concern.
COVID-19 has brought with it store shortages, which no doubt is a massive shock to most Americans. Nobody knows when those shortages will end.
Imagine what could happen if you dropped a grand in everyone's pocket every month. Also imagine the humanitarian crisis that would result by trying to suppress consumer inflation through price controls.
Re: What If Andrew Yang Was Right?
#4I'm not sure there's a "what if" at all, more like a "when will". At some point, a UBI will become a necessity. The most likely other options are a dystopian nightmare or a complete overhaul of our basic economic principles (i.e. a post-scarcity Star Trek-esque society)
For the most part I agree, but the important fact is that that point might not be now. Just because you might know the end point, doesn't mean you can skip the steps in between or try to get there too quickly. That can lead to disaster as you'll probably not have the right conditions or supporting structures in place.
Re: What If Andrew Yang Was Right?
#5The interview here is compelling. Yang's book is even more compelling. But what Yang doesn't do here or in his book is make a powerful case to fiscal conservative spelling out just how universal income will avoid demolishing the economy through inflation. Until this happens, UBI is going nowhere. Although COVID-19 is on everyone's minds right now, it wasn't too long ago that Venezuela, its hyperinflation, and empty s…
I wonder if there are any economic studies on whether social security increased inflation when it was first enacted. It's not the ideal comparison because of the sheer scale of UBI vs social security but it would be something to get notion of the impact.
Re: What If Andrew Yang Was Right?
#6I don't see how a universal basic income could be sustainable in any way.
You either have debt hyperinflation, or you have taxes high enough that the universal basic income is meaningless.
Re: What If Andrew Yang Was Right?
#7The interview here is compelling. Yang's book is even more compelling. But what Yang doesn't do here or in his book is make a powerful case to fiscal conservative spelling out just how universal income will avoid demolishing the economy through inflation. Until this happens, UBI is going nowhere. Although COVID-19 is on everyone's minds right now, it wasn't too long ago that Venezuela, its hyperinflation, and empty s…
I wonder if there are any economic studies on whether social security increased inflation when it was first enacted. It's not the ideal comparison because of the sheer scale of UBI vs social security but it would be something to get notion of the impact.
Hard to tell. We'd have to ping similar programs in order countries because there was massive depression on the value of the dollar than.
Re: What If Andrew Yang Was Right?
#8The interview here is compelling. Yang's book is even more compelling. But what Yang doesn't do here or in his book is make a powerful case to fiscal conservative spelling out just how universal income will avoid demolishing the economy through inflation. Until this happens, UBI is going nowhere. Although COVID-19 is on everyone's minds right now, it wasn't too long ago that Venezuela, its hyperinflation, and empty s…
I agree that it needs to be addressed, but my worry is that it’s complete conjecture.
So many people were predicting massive inflation from quantitative easing but that never came to pass.
To me, the scary thought is implementing UBI without a mechanism to reel it back if our model wasn’t right
Re: What If Andrew Yang Was Right?
#9We don't have to entirely speculate, we can look at existing evidence.
Australia has the most liberal welfare in the world. Anyone over 18 can get $984 per month, and up to another $242 in rent assistance. [1]
It has nothing to do with your previous employment history, or being fired, or anything like that. In fact, you can get it if you've never had a job in your life. You need to be "actively looking for work" which in reality means fill out a few job applications and forms every week. It's easy, I've done it.
You can't live a glamorous life, but you can certainly live. Especially if you get 3-4 people in a cheap rental, you'll have enough money to surf everyday, or watch TV, or smoke weed or do whatever else you want.
Yes, there are people that do exactly that, and probably will for all time. Has it ruined the Australian economy? nope. Has there been rampant inflation? nope.
I know it's not exactly UBI because if you have a paying job you can't get this money. So it's not "extra" money for everyone, but money for those that can't/won't or don't find paying work. It's interesting because it shows what percentage of people choose to sit around and do nothing with their lives and get free money - not that many [2]. When you dig into the numbers and take out age pensioners, people with disabilities and students (who get paid to go to university), you see that about 1.2 million Australian get welfare payments, which is just less than 5% of the population.
Keep in mind Australia has extremely low violent crime rates, and has one the highest happiness indexes in the world, and Melbourne is often voted the world's most livable city (or it comes in 2nd). [4]
Here's a great breakdown of how Australia spends it's welfare money [3]
Please, look at what other countries are doing and learn from it, don't just endlessly speculate about all the terrible ways UBI (or something like the above) might destroy things.
[1] https://www.crikey.com.au/2013/01/16/dole-around-the-world-h...
[2] http://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-half-to-two-thirds-o...
[3] https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/australia...
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Liveability_Ranking
Re: What If Andrew Yang Was Right?
#10The interview here is compelling. Yang's book is even more compelling. But what Yang doesn't do here or in his book is make a powerful case to fiscal conservative spelling out just how universal income will avoid demolishing the economy through inflation. Until this happens, UBI is going nowhere. Although COVID-19 is on everyone's minds right now, it wasn't too long ago that Venezuela, its hyperinflation, and empty s…
What's the alternative? This shit economy that nobody understands that favors psychopaths playing number games with people's livelihoods?
I'll take just about anything else.
A thousand for every adult is just a basic message - people come first, profits come second. Right now, military industrial complex, financial speculation, big pharma, etc, etc come first, humanity is someone else's problem - how many fucking charities do we have instead of a proper functioning system that provides basic dignity to every citizen worldwide?
This idiotic way of life is completely unsustainable and frankly, a depressing system to be born into.