Anytime UBI comes in a conversation, people immediately jump on the obvious and very basic “but what if” while they have never really questioned the way things work. First “what if” answered on HN.
“> nobody has to work
That’s generally not the expectation. The expectation is that there’s more than enough wealth to allow for everyone to have a baseline of income to meet their most basic needs. You want to buy a house, buy a car, travel, eat at fancy restaurants, buy expensive things, you still have to work. But if you want to quit your job and find another one you don’t need to fear starvation or eviction because you are without income for a few months.”
EXACTLY. It’s so interesting that people have the hardest time to visualize a new social contract, model that is fairer. It seems like most people really think that they “built” their social status out of thin air, working, without this thing called luck, the most random factor that no one controls.
Most people don’t realize that if a secretary of Education’s family owns 10 yachts, that hundreds of millions of dollars disappear in scams every day, that means we really do have the wealth to do much better.
It’s just not distributed properly. UBI in part solves that.
“How does UBI work if everyone just decided not to work anymore?”
No one will decide not to work anymore! And if they do, here’s what usually happens:
It’s something most Americans don’t know because social safety nets barely exist here. But most Europeans know that: you cannot live without a purpose, which is usually acquired through effort and positive feedback. Which is basically, work. I concur with the 3-month mark, as I hit it in France. After three months of doing nothing while all bills are being paid no problem, you begin to see the depression pit. Our brains can only take so many video games and alcohol binges. Then they want more. Because YOLO.
It’s human nature to feel good by doing something useful. It’s just that with UBI, you won’t have to work 3 jobs and pray that you get your money in time to keep your roof above your head.
Does that make sense?
“But what about all the low skilled jobs? No one will do them!”
If I was getting UBI, I’d go fix potholes in “my” street. Paint my older neighbor’s porch. If I don’t feel like it, I wouldn’t do that today, but next week. I’d teach kids how to play bass and I don’t know, tons of useful, social, technical, productive work by millions of people would be done with UBI. Instead, I’m on the grind like millions of others. Fighting each other instead of collaborating.
Yes, UBI and technology would erode classism like a mf. Which I think, would be great for all of us.
Most people play the devil’s advocate about UBI because they’re absolutely scared about the fact that they gave their entire faith to the Capitalism spin-wheel, which, because it’s a system, doesn’t give a fuck about them, even when they’re doing well. Pretty sure God doesn’t give a damn about their bank account either. Instead of being happy to be above others, they should strive to have a world where no one lives on the sidewalk so that they can stop bitching about hobos, and just go on with their lives. Just more socially efficient.
UBI will drive inflation!
We’re about to hit $7 gas like, next week lol. Inflation is right here, right now. The Feds have injected trillions of dollars in a couple years, which probably triggered the inflation we currently have. But, if those trillions had been distributed equally and efficiently, that inflation wouldn’t matter. Nobody would really care. Inflation is a problem in the way we use capitalism right now.
If we modify the system, inflation becomes a non issue. Just like student loans that can’t possibly be paid off anyway. Just cancel those, it was a scam.
Look, if we can collectively spend 30 years building a telescope and send it a million kilometers away in space EXACTLY where we wanted it to be floating at, in a SINGLE attempt, we sure can provide money on bank accounts to millions of people every month. That’s probably a lot easier. Let’s go.