UBI support Poll

[neil]

What is your position on implementing something like a Universal Basic Income (UBI)?

[Ahriman]

Needs to happen yesterday. We should've BEEN having that shit by now.

[neil]

I am for a form of a UBI if it's implemented in an economically feasible and valid way.

I am opposed to implementation of a UBI if it's a fixed guaranteed amount; it has to essentially be an amount that varies based on the performance of the economy.

For instance, let's suppose that the economy is performing modestly, and as a result, each recipient is receiving $1,000 per month during this time. Let's say that the economy performance improves a few months later; then the amount could be increased to - say - $1,200 per month & if the economy performs poorly in the next few months, then the amount could be decreased to - say - $800 per month.

If the overall economy does well, then everyone gets rewarded & if the economy does poorly, then everyone has to tighten their belts.

In other words, make it more like dividends. Andrew Yang called his UBI plan the Freedom Dividend, but he only spoke of making it $1,000 per month and not like actual dividends. I'm saying make it like actual dividends.

This isn't economic socialism & in fact it's more consistent with a free-market economic system and property rights than what we have today.

What we have today seems like something based on & stemming from what I like to refer to as an imperial system & it's the remnants of a feudal system - serfdom.

We currently don't have consistency when it comes to property rights without some sort of UBI. What I mean is not a system that implements a UBI as a social safety net, but rather as a system that compensates society in exchange for recognition of property rights.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I am for a form of a UBI if it's implemented in an economically feasible and valid way.

I am opposed to implementation of a UBI if it's a fixed guaranteed amount; it has to essentially be an amount that varies based on the performance of the economy.

For instance, let's suppose that the economy is performing modestly, and as a result, each recipient is receiving $1,000 per month during this time. Let's say that the economy performance improves a few months later; then the amount could be increased to - say - $1,200 per month & if the economy performs poorly in the next few months, then the amount could be decreased to - say - $800 per month.

If the overall economy does well, then everyone gets rewarded & if the economy does poorly, then everyone has to tighten their belts.

In other words, make it more like dividends. Andrew Yang called his UBI plan the Freedom Dividend, but he only spoke of making it $1,000 per month and not like actual dividends. I'm saying make it like actual dividends.

This isn't economic socialism & in fact it's more consistent with a free-market economic system and property rights than what we have today.

What we have today seems like something based on & stemming from what I like to refer to as an imperial system & it's the remnants of a feudal system - serfdom.

We currently don't have consistency when it comes to property rights without some sort of UBI. What I mean is not a system that implements a UBI as a social safety net, but rather as a system that compensates society in exchange for recognition of property rights.

Under that plan, can you justify the desperately poor having to ‘tighten their belts’ during an economic downturn? And what’s wrong with economic socialism anyway?

Boru

[neil]

I am for a form of a UBI if it's implemented in an economically feasible and valid way.

I am opposed to implementation of a UBI if it's a fixed guaranteed amount; it has to essentially be an amount that varies based on the performance of the economy.

For instance, let's suppose that the economy is performing modestly, and as a result, each recipient is receiving $1,000 per month during this time. Let's say that the economy performance improves a few months later; then the amount could be increased to - say - $1,200 per month & if the economy performs poorly in the next few months, then the amount could be decreased to - say - $800 per month.

If the overall economy does well, then everyone gets rewarded & if the economy does poorly, then everyone has to tighten their belts.

In other words, make it more like dividends. Andrew Yang called his UBI plan the Freedom Dividend, but he only spoke of making it $1,000 per month and not like actual dividends. I'm saying make it like actual dividends.

This isn't economic socialism & in fact it's more consistent with a free-market economic system and property rights than what we have today.

What we have today seems like something based on & stemming from what I like to refer to as an imperial system & it's the remnants of a feudal system - serfdom.

We currently don't have consistency when it comes to property rights without some sort of UBI. What I mean is not a system that implements a UBI as a social safety net, but rather as a system that compensates society in exchange for recognition of property rights.

Under that plan, can you justify the desperately poor having to ‘tighten their belts’ during an economic downturn? And what’s wrong with economic socialism anyway?

Boru

No, I can't justify it; however, with a UBI, the desperately poor would have more money than they do today without a UBI.

There are feasibility issues with economic socialism, such as the economic calculation problem.

[Belacqua]

What is your position on implementing something like a Universal Basic Income (UBI)?

Absolutely in favor. UBI, plus single-payer health insurance with negotiated prices for medicine.

All of this is possible; there's enough money. If the US were a democracy they could do it.

[JJoseph]

I support a Quasi-UBI, something like a Basic Income for the bottom 20% of the Nation's Poor, paid for from tax revenues/the national budget for that year.

Then, based on feasibility, and implementation success, it can be increased, either the BI can be increased, or 50% of the Nation's Poor families get it, etc.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Under that plan, can you justify the desperately poor having to ‘tighten their belts’ during an economic downturn? And what’s wrong with economic socialism anyway?

Boru

No, I can't justify it; however, with a UBI, the desperately poor would have more money than they do today without a UBI.

There are feasibility issues with economic socialism, such as the economic calculation problem.

Would the UBI be in addition to or in lieu of aid to the poor already in place?

Would you put an upper income limit on the UBI?

Boru

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

What is your position on implementing something like a Universal Basic Income (UBI)?

Absolutely in favor. UBI, plus single-payer health insurance with negotiated prices for medicine.

All of this is possible; there's enough money. If the US were a democracy they could do it.

It’s got bugger all to do with democracy - some of the least democratic countries in the world seem to manage it just fine.

Boru

[neil]

No, I can't justify it; however, with a UBI, the desperately poor would have more money than they do today without a UBI.

There are feasibility issues with economic socialism, such as the economic calculation problem.

Would the UBI be in addition to or in lieu of aid to the poor already in place?

Would you put an upper income limit on the UBI?

Boru

A UBI could be implemented in addition to aid to the poor already in place; I also happen to believe that there are ways that aid to the poor already in place can be improved without a UBI, and with a UBI, I think it might be able to further improve aid to the poor already in place.

Personally I don't think that there's any need to put an upper income limit on a UBI; with the approach I propose, everyone gets UBI regardless of income, since it's compensation that the wealthy would be just as entitled to, as compensation in exchange for property rights, as the poor.

Economically/mathematically speaking, it wouldn't be a drain on the allocation of tax (or tariff, etc.) revenue collected from payouts to wealthy vs. poor individuals, since the ratio of wealthy people to poor people is huge; this makes the total going to the wealthy a negligible amount, compared to what still remains for the poor.