not insanity at all. what’s insane is that the “basic” income being proposed is too small . If a small “basic” income is such a good idea economically, then an even BIGGER “basic” income should rev up the economy even more!
I propose that each person in the U.S. be given a trillion dollar coin instead of a “basic income” coin. After all, the cost to make a “basic income” coin is the same as the cost to make a trillion dollar coin, and everyone would be RICH and not have to exist at just the subsistence level of a “basic income”. Everyone could buy anything they wanted and no one would ever have to work again.
The coins could be made from a base metal, so they would be cheap to make, and a few extra ones could be minted for the government itself, so taxes could be completely eliminated and yet government could still function. It’s such an elegant solution I don’t know why it hasn’t been implemented yet.
For myself, I’m going to start by buying a pony and the Broncos NFL football team (and fire all the kneelers). And I won’t even need pony food stamps anymore to feed my pony because I’ll be so rich!
Yes, but what about counterfeit coins?
;-)
The sarcasm appreciated, it does miss the point which needs addressing:
We live in a highly productive culture, where most who produce do so with enough “excess” that - in theory - some of that excess could be siphoned off and give everyone at least a poverty-level income.
The snide “well, give everyone a $million!” isn’t helpful. There isn’t an extra $million per person to go around.
We need to address this UBI nonsense with what makes our side successful: objectivity.
UBI will fail because:
- $UBI becomes the new “zero income”
- The basic incentive to work (produce or starve) is eliminated, reducing national productivity
- Low-income work is disrupted, no point in doing mundane labor when you receive the same value in productivity for breathing (leading to “the new zero income”)
- The productive have the fruits of their labors reduced, disincentivizing high productivity
- Some of the productive find that UBI is a comfortable baseline for personal productivity (growing own food, etc) and stop contributing to tax base
- Bottom line: “supply and demand” is an economic law which WILL level itself out regardless of artificial adjustments; trying to out-smart it _always_ fails.