Posted on 09/21/2017 11:22:11 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Startup incubator Y Combinator is expanding their research into the benefits of universal basic income (UBI).
In a new blog post published on the company’s website this week, they reveal their plans to pick 3,000 individuals from two states at random to receive a monthly cash handout. 1,000 participants will receive $1,000 per month for a period up to five years, while the other 2,000 will receive $50 per month, serving as the control group.
Y Combinator hopes to find out how basic income can help people respond to economic instability and uncertainty, or perhaps even find alternatives to UBI that achieve the same purpose. The overarching goal of this trial is to advance the debate about the future of work.
Silicon Valley is certainly being vocal when it comes to UBI. The likes of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have shared their support for the idea, along with others.
(Excerpt) Read more at futurism.com ...
And now, you capitalist conservatives are no longer allowed to say the government doesn’t create “jobs”.
I’ll just let that sink in...
That’s right, because if they already get HUD, food stamps, medical, or whatever most people have to pay for, and then get 1K to just spend, WTH.
I think you replied to the wrong person. I have no problem helping people who can’t help themselves, but to take money from one person and give it to another just because is theft.
Enact UBI and I may very well “go Galt”.
Family of 4 ... $4000/mo ... yeah, I can easily downgrade to a seriously rural self-sufficient lifestyle, considering I already have everything I need and/or can cash in what I have to buy capital necessities (land, humble abode, tools). That check nicely covers the few things I’d actually need cash for.
...funny, that UBI might just encourage a whole lot of tax-producing people to quit “working”...
Vermont & CA would be appropriate for this Comminist pilot program.
Idea of UBI is to replace all welfare with a flat check, eliminating the bureaucratic overhead & costs, and end the various “prove it” dead-ends people hit.
Of course, all those displaced bureaucrats & empowered leeches promptly “discover” all kinds of “$UBI/mo isn’t enough for special case X” rhetoric and promptly re-instate the massive welfare state on top of UBI.
It will go to drugs and porn sites, garranteed.
“My bet is that within a year most of the participants will trade it for a lump sum in the form of a loan and then blow the money anyway.”
You nailed it. This is nothing but the viatical settlement industry acquiring a new target of opportunity.
Yep, this zero incentive means they will not know how to grow up and compute faithful efforts with results in the end. That lack of exposure in fixing your own car with worry and then seeing it run better than ever means they will use that money for easy fixes at best and nothing will be learned
It is paying people to stay dumb at best, at worse to be terrorists or have terrorist rackets rip it from these people. Many mentaly disabled kids in black neighborhood with EBT card get it taken by gangs
Science fiction has predicted the “dole” for years and years. The proletariats subsiding for the pleasures of the elite in their ghettos and compounds, set aside behind fences in slums on a monthly allotment.
Control the allotment? Control their health care and transportation?
Control their hearts, their minds, and their stomachs. And their votes.
This is a shockingly stupid idea. People do not value, take care of, or use wisely what they get for free. We all know that. It’s better to give them make-work jobs than simple cash - guarantee the cash, but make them earn the money. I feel sorry for those who receive this hand out and are damaged by it.
There may be a few who don’t need it, don’t particularly want it, and will save it, invest it, or use it wisely. They will be unharmed and perhaps even helped, but they will be a small fraction of those receiving the “free” money.
Exactly.
I’d speculate that most of the recipients will lose their rent subsidies, EBT/food stamps, Medicaid, etc., after Mr. Means Test comes to town. Some will likely end up in serious trouble for fraud by failing to report their real income — which will be hard to hide for long, since the company making the payments will have to file 1099s and withhold income taxes. This program will be a nightmare.
Like Dave Ramsey says, being broke is a temporary state of things, while being poor is a state of mind. The people you described will always be poor regardless of how much money they have.
will they have to pay tax on it?
Hey, sign me up. I could use some help with high property taxes, rising utilities and health care.
It used to be that the monopolist and communist were mortal enemies:
now they are friends.
Money for nothing and chicks for free.
Heck, I _am_ motivated to productivity, and relish the idea of cashing in my investments to live a no-taxable-income lifestyle. $UBI/mo would cover cash-requiring expenses nicely, like paying property taxes.
Link to proposal/study and discussion at Y Combinator’s equivalent of HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15304269
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