There's always a choice.
Posted on 07/19/2017 8:00:35 AM PDT by Cheerio
The idea of a universal basic income — monthly cash payments from the government to every individual, working or not, with no strings attached — is gaining traction, thanks in part to endorsements from Silicon Valley celebs.
Some see it as a way to compensate for the traditional jobs with benefits that will be wiped out by robotics, artificial intelligence, self-driving vehicles, globalization and the gig economy. Others see it as a way to reduce income inequality or to create a more efficient, less stigmatizing safety net than our current mishmash of welfare benefits.
“I think ultimately we will have to have some kind of universal basic income, I don’t think we are going to have a choice,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said at the World Government Summit in Dubai in February.
In a commencement speech at Harvard University in May, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “We should explore ideas like universal basic income to give everyone a cushion to try new things.” And in a July 4 blog post, Zuckerberg praised Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend, the nearest thing to universal income in this or any country. Since 1982, Alaska has been distributing some of its oil revenue as an annual payment, ranging from about $1,000 to $3,000, to every resident including children.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfchronicle.com ...
There's always a choice.
Why universal income is gaining mockery.
One hundred percent of the people clamoring for it are the same welfare bums and idiots who don’t want to repay their debts that we see in every scheme to laze around and be a couch potato.
There are always bread and circuses degenerates.
Perfect recipe for destroying a people. Which, I suppose, is the idea to begin with.
Idle hands are the devils workshop.
I don’t get this. Dont we already do something along these lines, what with various social welfare programs?? We have section 8 housing, EBT benefits to the poor, food stamp or SNAP benefits to the poor.
Since we already have a social safety net of programs to help people in need, what’s the deal with this basic income?? Would it be replacing all of the various government social programs, or would it be layered on top of all the existing programs? I have yet to hear anyone discuss that aspect of this.
I can see what they mean that as technology increasingly makes human labor outdated, there may not be enough jobs to go around. I don't have the foresight of some of these people.
But I do have some hindsight.
In the early 1900s someone suggested that we should close the patent office because "everything had already been invented". Little did they know the tech boom that would happen in that century.
I suspect that this century will be the same. And people will be needed to in ways we cannot imagine.
This is not a good idea. In fact, it’s terrible.
More man playing God fun and games...what could go wrong?
It always amazes me how stupid liberals are when it comes to judging people's reactions and the resultant unintended consequences to their "let's give more taxpayer monies to the sluff-offs of society", so they can have a better life.
The only new things these slackers will try is more drugs, more not working, more time for rioting and looting and turning more cities into the hell-holes like Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, Oakland, that the democRATS-controlled cities have already become.
Giving unmotivated people more free stuff will not solve these people's problems. It only sets the stage for them to create more problems for themselves and drain the taxpayer wallets of more hard-earned monies.
***universal basic income***
My worthless brother-in-law (If you know him he probably owes you money) would LOVE THIS! Able bodied, he has not held a job since I first met him in 1971. So would all his adult kids.
His poor wife had to apply for her own social security as he did not work enough for her to draw off him.
I can’t link to it, because he doesn’t allow access to his older material anymore, but Karl Denninger ran the numbers on a guaranteed basic income replacing all of those social programs a couple years ago. The numbers were shocking. I think it cut the federal budget more than in half, if memory serves.
So, I’m sort of torn about it. Socially and ideologically, I think such an idea is terrible. Economically, it is hugely inflationary and counterproductive in the long-run. It is, however, far better and more sustainable than what we do now, if the grand bargain was to do the universal income but do away with all the existing social programs.
Where do I get my number for the bread line?
I’m sure it’s gaining support with those who don’t want to work.
A lot of FReepers are for it. One told me it was going to be deflationary.
I gave up trying to explain that was madness.
I’m not “for it,” I see many problems and societal pitfalls, but given the looming loss of wide swathes of employment to robotics, political reality will be that voters force this or something very much along those lines. Millions of voters aren’t going to allow themselves to be put out on the street due to their party affiliation.
I agree.
It happened before. The invention of the gas engine changed how many people needed to raise food, and made us all productive. Some say that was the cause of the great depression
We got into a discussion with a woman who posited that there is enough space in the U.S. for everyone to have a free house, and enough farm land for everyone to be provided free food. Mya daughter said, “if I have a free place to live and free food, why would I work? Then who will work on the farms to produce the food or build the houses or drive the trucks to get the food to the people?” She didn’t get that. Her answer was “everyone will just pitch in and do their part to make it work.” Then, she got offended when we laughed at her.
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