It’s time for a guaranteed national income

Lakeland Times ^ | November 08, 2005 | Richard Moore

[clamper1797]

Just remember comrades ... there ARE some who are more equal than others ... like Clampers ....

[SIDENET]

Sounds radical, doesn’t it?

Yes. Stupid, too.

[groanup]

"Socialism has a history of such dismal failure that only and academic or intellectual could promote it."

Thomas Sowell.

[Delta 21]

Strippers, liquor, and mud-bugs!

Strip bars were open less than 72 hours after the huricane.

Pretty sad, but thats just my opinion.

[msf92497]

All I want is more FREE time. Am I not entitled to it?

[Bob J]

There is so much wrong with this article one doesn't know where to begin.

Nothing is stopping this author from going down to skid row and splitting his income with 2 or three of the "needy". If he finds this suggestion ludicrous, I wonder where he thinks the money is going to come from to fund his brilliant idea?

[feralcat]

This kind of guaranteed benefits scheme is making France such a tranquil place right now.

[308MBR]

Yep, the "starving poor" here need help. The only "poor" that ARE hungry are the ones selling their food stamps for cash.

The USA is the ONLY country in the world that THE major health problem among the "poor" is OBESITY! Hey, we even pay for gastric bypasses for the morbidly obese, as well as knee/hip replacements, heart bypasses, etc. brought on by the "poor" sitting around in their heated/air conditioned "hovels" watching TV, playing video games and copulating.

This article is pure Bovine Scatology.

[MikefromOhio]

This idea is so inflationary it isn't even funny.

[JasonC]

Those who do not work, shall not eat.

That used to be a slogan of the left. How far we have come.

When people who do nothing for their fellow men live off their fellow men, they come to regard them as their natural prey. And vice versa. It is destructive of social cooperation, which is in fact where all real wealth originates. Take away that real cooperation and the wealth to fund anything evaporates along with it. Because all it is, is that cooperation in action. Money has nothing to do with it, it is merely an intermediary. The desire to live of the work of others without working is the desire to enslave others. Plain and simple.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Why do socialists like Mr. Moore always overlook that once a guaranteed income is established, every single person who makes from about 50% above that figure down to zero would simply stop working!!!! Why should they work - the check is coming, anyway? More time to watch Jerry Springer.

And all of a sudden, the tax revenues would drop by about 50%, leaving no money to fund the guaranteed income.

[txroadhawg]

Would that intellectually starving?

[mitchbert]

All I have ever wanted is a free pony.

I want a Ferrari. Modeno 360 prefered. Red, but any color is acceptable in the end. Oh, and while they're at it, I wish water was beer.

[crazyhorse691]

To be really fair, just give each household the printing software for US currency and they could print it out as needed. No bureaucracy to deal with and each case is custom tailored to meet their needs.

[Fledermaus]

Socialists never stop, do they?

[GregoryFul]

Boneheaded economics! Poverty will only be extinguished if some magical and untended cornucopia of goods and services appeared to satisfy all our needs and desires - otherwise, those who do not make a reasonable, legal effort to obtain their needs and desires will be poor, those who make an extraordinary effort will be rich. No matter what their "income" is, it is all relative. It is these combined efforts that bring forth wealth. And the rich, in exerting their efforts, will likely bring us closer to the cornucopia.

[MNJohnnie]

Would someone please explain to the Socialist Morons, the money does NOT go to the individuals it goes to build decades worth of infrastructure i.e.roads, bridges, canals, levees etc that were destroyed. It is time these liars quit fraudulently using statistics to claim something that is not even remotely true. Give it all away the next couple of years and YOU STILL have to shell out $200 billion to rebuild the infrastructure. Will these morons EVER grow up or will they still be living in wacko fantasy land the day they die?

[jsmith48]

Paging John Galt. Cleanup on isle 12.

[gedeon3]

This dumb a$$ doesn't even know what it is like to be poor in a 3rd world country.

[Brilliant]

I note that no one suggested this when the Republican state of Florida got hit last year.