Posted on 05/20/2015 8:27:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Scott Santens has been thinking a lot about fish lately. Specifically, hes 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 hes a leader in the basic income movementa 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 lifes 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. Hes 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. Its not just a matter of needing basic income in the future; we need it now, says Santens, who lives in New Orleans. People dont 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 ...
The parasites are getting better organized,not a good thing.
Plus they seem to be actively recruiting.
But who would ask me “Would I like fries with my order?”
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.
What is Greece? For $500 Alex.
Guy’s had WAAAYYY too much KOOLAIDE.
> says Santens, who lives in New Orleans
Says all I need to know.
I say give him a monthly stipend. In exchange he has to agree to be sterilized.
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.
Sounds like a pyramid scheme to me. Eventually, there will be more takers than donors.
It’s called being a government employee...
Just have the government print more money, better yet give all of us a printing press. Next problem.
What happens when the men forget how to fish and the robot breaks down. Can the men live on the hydraulic fluid?
.... better yet give all of us a printing press. Next problem.”
But wait, printing our own money means we’d have to work.
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.
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
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.
You could offer that to every convict in America.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.