(January 7, 2024 at 7:40 am)h4ym4n Wrote: So similar to a minimum wage like in the US?
Is that an income if you work or not?
There are various versions. None has been established in a whole country, though there have been various pilot programs.
Usually it's conceived of as a no-strings-attached payment, whether you work or not. It just ensures that no one can go completely broke.
Artists or poets who are willing to live on the basic income wouldn't starve. People who want more can continue to have a career, just as people do now. I'm no expert, but some people have calculated that it would be cheaper for a country to do it this way, rather than set up help programs for those who have hit rock bottom.
Personally I think it would free people up to try new things or exercise talents that don't pay. So for example if you wanted to start a new business you'd know that failure wouldn't be catastrophic.
And just in terms of "what kind of society do we want to live in?" I think it would be better to spend money to keep people secure than on, say, endless war.
You've probably heard this quote from Steven Jay Gould:
Quote:“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.”
I think we'd all benefit if people's talents have a better chance of being exercised.
