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What If Everybody Didn't Have to Work to Get Paid?
The Atlantic ^ | May 18, 2015 | David R. Wheeler

Posted on 05/20/2015 8:27:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Scott Santens has been thinking a lot about fish lately. Specifically, he’s been reflecting on the aphorism, “If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he eats for life.” What Santens wants to know is this: “If you build a robot to fish, do all men starve, or do all men eat?”

Santens is 37 years old, and he’s a leader in the basic income movement—a worldwide network of thousands of advocates (26,000 on Reddit alone) who believe that governments should provide every citizen with a monthly stipend big enough to cover life’s basic necessities. The idea of a basic income has been around for decades, and it once drew support from leaders as different as Martin Luther King Jr. and Richard Nixon. But rather than waiting for governments to act, Santens has started crowdfunding his own basic income of $1,000 per month. He’s nearly halfway to his his goal.

Santens, for his part, believes that job growth is no longer keeping pace with automation, and he sees a government-provided income as a viable remedy. “It’s not just a matter of needing basic income in the future; we need it now,” says Santens, who lives in New Orleans. “People don’t see it, but we are already seeing the effects all around us, in the jobs and pay we take, the hours we accept, the extremes inequality is reaching, and in the loss of consumer spending power.”(continued)

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Society; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: basicincome; economy; fairtax; flattax; guaranteedincome; helicoptermoney; income; miltonfriedman; minimumwage; negativeincometax; obamarecession; obamataxhikes; taxcuts; taxreform; ubi; universalbasicincome; welfare
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We already have this for over 40% of the population.
1 posted on 05/20/2015 8:27:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The parasites are getting better organized,not a good thing.
Plus they seem to be actively recruiting.


2 posted on 05/20/2015 8:34:31 PM PDT by Farmer Dean (stop worrying about what they want to do to you,start thinking about what you want to do to them)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

But who would ask me “Would I like fries with my order?”


3 posted on 05/20/2015 8:35:21 PM PDT by ThomasThomas ("YOUR BADGE! SHOW HIM YOUR BADGE!")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Sooner or later, you run out of other peoples’ money.

Why would I work if I know that I’m paying for everyone else to have a decent life without working? Why not be like them? Stay at home and wait for my check.

And if everyone decides to give up on working, the government may find revenue generation challenging.


4 posted on 05/20/2015 8:35:36 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy ("It's not easy being drunk all the time; everyone would do it, if it were easy.")
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To: Farmer Dean

What is Greece? For $500 Alex.


5 posted on 05/20/2015 8:36:07 PM PDT by Ouchthatonehurt ("When you're going through hell, keep going." - Sir Winston Churchill)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Guy’s had WAAAYYY too much KOOLAIDE.


6 posted on 05/20/2015 8:38:07 PM PDT by Blue Collar Christian (Ready for Teddy. Cruz, that is. Texas conservative.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

7 posted on 05/20/2015 8:40:19 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s, you weren't really there....)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

> says Santens, who lives in New Orleans

Says all I need to know.


8 posted on 05/20/2015 8:45:01 PM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I say give him a monthly stipend. In exchange he has to agree to be sterilized.


9 posted on 05/20/2015 8:46:11 PM PDT by BBell (Cult of the Sacred Drunken Wookiee)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
who believe that governments should provide every citizen with a monthly stipend big enough to cover life’s basic necessities.

And who apparently don't believe that this will lead to EVEN MORE people who choose not to work. More and more and more. Why should they bother? And with less people working there are less and less who provide the tax dollars that fund this stupid guaranteed income BS.

Is it any wonder basic economics is not taught anymore? This mentality creates an every growing pool of leeches.

10 posted on 05/20/2015 8:46:35 PM PDT by Lizavetta
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Sounds like a pyramid scheme to me. Eventually, there will be more takers than donors.


11 posted on 05/20/2015 8:46:45 PM PDT by Signalman
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It’s called being a government employee...


12 posted on 05/20/2015 8:47:03 PM PDT by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Just have the government print more money, better yet give all of us a printing press. Next problem.


13 posted on 05/20/2015 8:49:42 PM PDT by Huskrrrr
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To: Blue Collar Christian
< Guy’s had WAAAYYY too much KOOLAIDE. No doubt he worships at the altar of O


14 posted on 05/20/2015 8:49:48 PM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What happens when the men forget how to fish and the robot breaks down. Can the men live on the hydraulic fluid?


15 posted on 05/20/2015 8:50:44 PM PDT by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: Huskrrrr

.... better yet give all of us a printing press. Next problem.”

But wait, printing our own money means we’d have to work.


16 posted on 05/20/2015 8:52:53 PM PDT by Huskrrrr
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’ve got no problem with people who want to contribute - they have the right to be foolish with their own money. Just don’t demand mine.


17 posted on 05/20/2015 8:55:38 PM PDT by GilesB
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What if everyone didn’t have to work to get paid?

Then only the people who wanted to wrk for their own dignity would work. Of course then they’d be paying for those who choose to not work, along with those who truly cannot, which is, what? Ten percent

Duh

That’s what we have now


18 posted on 05/20/2015 8:57:52 PM PDT by stanne
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Job growth isn’t keeping pace with government. When you have HS librarians making $150K a year and then retiring on 75% of that, you’ve got a lot of private sector job destruction going on.

The trouble with jobs and job creation is government.


19 posted on 05/20/2015 8:59:36 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: BBell

You could offer that to every convict in America.


20 posted on 05/20/2015 9:00:54 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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