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What are your thoughts on universal basic income?
- It sounds like a good idea on the surface. Most predictions are that with growing automation, jobs will be harder to find and just telling people "tough shit" will just encourage them to eat the rich. Plus, it could simplify matters compared to the insane maze of welfare programs we currently have.
To me the main downside is how to set it up so we don't discourage people from taking the jobs that still exist and need to be filled. It would not be a good idea to have UBI so small that living on it is a life of deprivation and poverty, but we don't necessarily want it to provide *all* the luxuries available; at least not at the outset.
— lardfarquard
- Where will the money come to pay for it?
— notthatcbailey
- I don't know. I like the idea because so many people would be able to truly do things that productively make them happy. On the other hand people are just going to be lazy and bear off in the streets. Then again, they already are.
— tanningchatum69
- Some people get on here and have no idea what they are talking about, and I'm one of them.
But let's not be stupid. Let's say mcdonalds fires 3,000 employees and replaces them with automation. Mcdonalds now doesnt have to pay an hourly wage to those workers. The government would "somehow" tax the time or the products created by the automation to the company. Mcdonalds would pay towards universal income.
Another part people are probably getting wrong. The doctor who is still working daily will receive universal income too, along with his/her salary. This is the only way to keep people from wanting to do nothing, supplemental salary. The strive to have more, which is capitalism right?
— chingy_meh_wingy