Yes, I support it. Science has shown the government can afford it and it will save them money in the long run. If society has the resources to ensure everyone’s basic needs are met, do it.
The argument against it is that people won’t work if they aren’t forced to. I think people want to work. This would enable people to have their basic needs met first so they can build a career comfortably.
I believe it should happen and I believe it eventually will happen in Canada, but it will take a lot longer than it should.
I’d add that, when you look through history… Every major scientific advancement has been made by people not worried about paying for their daily life.
They had time to think about hard problems
Should be done everywhere and for everyone. Can you imagine a society where you don’t have to work just to be able to live? The projects you would pursue, how way less power would bad managers and bosses have? It would also help decentralization from big cities as people wouldn’t be forced to move there to get jobs.
Also I never realized the toll finances were taking on my stress and mental health until I reached some kind of financial stability. No one should have to endure that much stress just to be able to live.
Sounds ideal
except politicians need low wage workers they can grift off with culture wars, and CANNON FODDER for the military, they would never agree with that, thats why most countries dont want implement it.
I could imagine that society being full of all sorts of different problems than the current one.
For example if people moved away from cities it would be a huge negative impact on the environment.
You would also have a new underclass that simple lived off assistance and refused to work. The costs of living would probably also skyrocket such that whatever basic level of income you set would be the new poverty line.
The problem with assumption is that UBI must only do good. It won’t. It will have all sorts of negative effects on top of the positive ones. An easy one to foresee is people taking their UBI and gambling it away.
The vast majority of people couldn’t just live off basic income. Maybe a single person, no kids, no drinking, no house, no car, and living very frugality might be able to not work.
Yeah I’m interested in exploring that
I support it and think it could work. It would make people more happy and free, while removing a lot of unnecessary and expensive bureaucracy from our current welfare system.
Id agree, especially with the growing use of AI. I don’t think anyone knows fully how many jobs will disappear but we do know it wont/isnt zero.
I’m of the opinion that nobody needs it. UBI is a precursor to the CBDC for those who aren’t careful (there’s speculation on what could be, whether it be a cryptocurrency [stablecoin like Circle or Tether], or something else entirely).
If anything, to avoid that, I’d recommend Jack Spirko’s podcast, The Survival Podcast (which is on YouTube and podcast platforms). I’m a regular listener, and while I don’t agree with everything he says, he has good points on how to avoid the UBI (doing a trade or freelancing is one way to avoid it entirely).
Someone else may be able to come up with a more concise and better worded argument for it, but the way we’ve implemented private ownership/use of natural resources seems pretty shitty. Especially considering how many people have been screwed over and how much damage is often done in the process.
Owning something that existed long before people, and would have continued to exist if we’ve never evolved, seems suspect in general. While there’s value in the labor involved in extracting or preparing these resources for use, the material itself wasn’t created by anyone and should belong to everyone in some way.
A portion of the income derived from the exploitation of all natural resources should be redistributed as UBI.
I would extend that concept to land itself.
Land should be nominally “owned” by all citizens of a country, and leased to specific people on an ongoing basis with similar rights to use it as currently, but without the right to “sell” it. You can choose to stop leasing it, and lease somewhere else instead.
Then the proceeds of that should be used to fund the UBI.
I agree we need a universal basic income, I refer to it as “automation compensation”. It only works if corporations and investors are banned from owning residential homes. Also we need to construct an abundance of efficient high rises to ensure there’s more than enough availability. In order for basic necessities like housing, electricity, water, and food are met, we need the infrastructure plan to guarantee availability. Otherwise, a UBI will just drive up costs because owners and sellers will account for that extra money people can spend.
Messaging is so important these days. “Blue collar dollars”
The words “universal” and “income” are so charged now. A lot of people dismiss it immediately as “unearned”.
Thats why I think just doing universal health care, universal internet, universal electricity would be an ideal way to transition imho. Just start by providing the basics. We’ve invested so much in energy in this country in the last 2 centuries and we all get exploited on it. doesn’t have to be a blank check form.
I think it’s a great idea.
We are the wealthiest culture ever, we can afford it.
It would zero out most crime.
Fighting to survive is beneath us.
I don’t know if you really know how much money that represents. Would you still work? If not, who will make your food, everything you buy, and why?
I coincidentally heard something about that today. Sadly in German but according to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGE8jzGZ7To
80% of people said they would continue working
80% of people thought others would not
We seem to expect worse of others than of ourselves. Even if it turns out to be that 40% ends up stopping to do anything remotely useful, it’s at least worth trying and finding out what works and what doesn’t imo. Having the right to choose how to live your life freely seems like an enormous benefit that a minority needn’t ruin
I mean it’s pretty obvious that people don’t tend to stop working.
All you have to do is look at groups of people who either don’t need income. Take a look at retired people for example, and you see many of them doing something productive with at least part of their time.
They may choose to do things that aren’t a paid job, like childcare for grand children, taking care of a home, or volunteering, but those are still work in my opinion.
Hell my own grandmother retired from being a grocery cashier for 40 years, then got bored and went back to work for another 5 years because she liked being social (it was a smaller town where she knew most of the customers).
UBI needs to be combined with rent and price controls if it is not, inflation will eat the benefits inside of a 5-year period and money will be siphoned up the chain.
Otherwise I am all for it.
I disagree, rent and price controls are not the correct tool.
Land value taxes are the correct method to solve that issue.
I don’t entirely follow? I’m totally open to alternatives to making sure the money stays where it is, I just don’t immediately understand the mechanism.
A proper Land value tax is a way of preventing owners from making any money off the appreciation of the value of land while still being profitable to construct or renovate if it adds value. It significantly reduces if not outright eliminates housing as an investment.
Land value taxes only apply to the value of the land itself, not the buildings, and therefore desirable areas with high land value taxes have a significant incentive to sell and be redeveloped with density which spread a that tax among a larger number of tenants.
The biggest downside is that it completely destroys existing equity. Which is both how it makes everything affordable again, and is also likely why it won’t pass as a policy for many years.
I genuinely like the idea of higher density, as much as I like driving, having a city that’s walkable and with good transit (which density incentives) would be a dream.
My current city is a sprawling suburb and it’s almost an hour by bus to do a trip that takes 10 minutes by car.
Also thank you for expanding on this!
It’s shit.
A bandage on top of the festering open wound that is capitalism does not help anyone long term.
I’m always happy to hear suggestions of alternate systems for resource allocation that do not involve capitalism. What do you propose?
For me, homesteading, learning a trade (freelancing is another option), stacking gold, silver, Bitcoin, or other hard assets that appreciate over time.
