Universal Basic Income

Adebesi

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1. And how many people slaved away for those nobles and aristocrats? It's not like their wealth fell from the sky. They essentially had an easy life on the back of a lot of people who had to provide for them.
Right... and now there are machines to do the slaving away. That's the whole point.

On inflation, the counterargument is that UBI would merely undo the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few that has happened over the past few decades. The idea of the general public having disposable incomes is not completely unprecedented, in fact they already have it, they just have to load up on unsustainable debt.
 

George Owen

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@Atze-Peng We need to start thinking about it now because shit can hit the fan way earlier. Jobs are already being lost faster than you can create them. Advancement in technology grows almost at exponential rates. I say 100 years, but maybe its sooner.

For example, the millions of people who already lost their jobs and rebound into stuff like Uber or delivering goods. All those jobs will be certainly gone in the next 15 years, sooner probably, as automated cars have already drove millions and millions of miles in public roads.

As for the other points, they are certainly situations we gonna have to deal with. But in the end, it's only 2 choices. We share the wealth created by machines, or not. Both are certainly realistic options.

I chose to believe somehow we gonna make the right choices as humanity (whether its us humans or some AI doing the choice for us). "We are one" after all, and the more into future, the more we are.
 

Zarlak

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I really fail to understand how universal basic income is in any way desirable. It begs three questions:

1. What's the motivation left, if you truly have your ends meet? Saying "people will then just magically do what they enjoy doing" is ridiculous and blind utopic thinking. There is literally nothing that even gives this hypothesis any sort of credibility.
2. Who pays for it? Essentially it forces people who are more successful to pay for all the rest. First of all, how is that fair? Secondly, why would they stay in a system that punishes their success to this extent? Once again, it's blind utopic thinking.
3. Will the market react to the increase buying power by increasing it's pricing and effectively nullifying the effect of UBI?


To me it seems people just want to have some easy solution of god government taking care of them without any self-responsibility. There are legit issues mentioned by the pro-UBI crowd, but in no way is UBI the solution to those issues.
1.) Are you honestly asking what's the motivation to earn say 50k a year instead of 12k a year? What motivates you to work your job instead of working at McDonalds just to make sure your basic needs are met? This is a really, really, really stupid question.
2.) Research into the proposals and you will see how it's paid for.
3.) Possibly, and possibly not there are various arguments for this, but this question doesn't mean a concept should be scrapped, only discussed further.
 

Atze-Peng

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Right... and now there are machines to do the slaving away. That's the whole point.

On inflation, the counterargument is that UBI would merely undo the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few that has happened over the past few decades. The idea of the general public having disposable incomes is not completely unprecedented, in fact they already have it, they just have to load up on unsustainable debt.
Aka essentially you want to have a top-down wealth mechanism despite the upper percentages already paying way more taxes than the rest. US studies have found that the top 20% pay for more than 80% of the income tax already. What makes you think if you create an even bigger disbalance - these same people will stay and want to remain their business in a country who does?

Don't get me wrong. There are actual studies showing that the down-top movement of wealth is a common issue in EVERY system that some of the smartest people on earth haven't found a reasonable solution to it. But higher taxes for rich people will simply not do it. They will just make business anywhere else. And before you say: "Then all countries have to give high taxes to the rich". The moment one single country decides not to, they will get all the business to them and have a gigantic edge over the rest. It simply is an utopic thought that this somehow could work out.



@Atze-Peng We need to start thinking about it now because shit can hit the fan way earlier. Jobs are already being lost faster than you can create them. Advancement in technology grows almost at exponential rates. I say 100 years, but maybe its sooner.

For example, the millions of people who already lost their jobs and rebound into stuff like Uber or delivering goods. All those jobs will be certainly gone in the next 15 years, sooner probably, as automated cars have already drove millions and millions of miles in public roads.

As for the other points, they are certainly situations we gonna have to deal with. But in the end, it's only 2 choices. We share the wealth created by machines, or not. Both are certainly realistic options.

I chose to believe somehow we gonna make the right choices as humanity (whether its us humans or some AI doing the choice for us). "We are one" after all, and the more into future, the more we are.
Yes, we can start think about it now. But I asked you why you would want to implement it any time soon, if we don't live in this world, yet?


And you can choose to believe whatever you want, but I am not a believer. I try to look at things in a pragmatic way. And the pragmatic way is that currently businesses need the labour and the labour needs businesses. There is an exchange where the labour force gets paid to do the jobs and the business is a sort of supervisior and organiser for that work. The moment the need for that labour ceases to exist, the labour force has ZERO leverage anymore and the people who are in charge of that technology can just benefit themselves. And they most likely will.



1.) Are you honestly asking what's the motivation to earn say 50k a year instead of 12k a year? What motivates you to work your job instead of working at McDonalds just to make sure your basic needs are met? This is a really, really, really stupid question.
2.) Research into the proposals and you will see how it's paid for.
3.) Possibly, and possibly not there are various arguments for this, but this question doesn't mean a concept should be scrapped, only discussed further.
1. So why aren't more people doing that right now? Exactly. Because not everyone is capable of. Either they lack the skill or the drive. What makes you think this will change the moment they don't have the need to actually work anymore? If anything, it will do the exact opposite like in the finnish experiment where the people may said they are happier, but they certainly didn't get more productive. And as you may not have grown up in a former socialist country. I have. And the main issue was that people didn't give a single shit about their work-quality. They were paid anyway, so why even try to make your work more valuable?
2. I have. And I am not convinced about the recommended solutions. It's bubbles assuming that the upper financial caste will just pay people out of altruism. So you need to force them to do so - and chances are they will simply tell the countries to feck off and rebuilt elsewhere. Especially the big ones who are already internationally operating. No way in hell this pink cotton candy approach will work out.
 

Oo0AahCantona

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he’s also in the Alex Jones thread defending the alt right interests via proxy opinions, what a surprise he also hates the idea of UBI and any form of wealth redistribution and is chomping at the bit to defend capitalism by all means necessary.
 

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A universal basic income is a good way to buy social peace.

The income has to be decent but not so high to urge people to find a work.
 

Ecstatic

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he’s also in the Alex Jones thread defending the alt right interests via proxy opinions, what a surprise he also hates the idea of UBI and any form of wealth redistribution and is chomping at the bit to defend capitalism by all means necessary.
Trump appreciates him, no?
 

Marcelinho87

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I am for it.

But regardless of if you are for or against I think it is the only viable option with how far and wide automation is going to go. I work with automation daily and see how quickly it is expanding across many areas.

UBI will not lead people to work less in my opinion, it will actively push people into bettering their lives on top of the wages they already earn.

Also I would like to see the budget for benefits and how much of that sits, going un-claimed? Scrap benefits as it is and introduce tax free UBI to ALL no matter their income.
 

Ibi Dreams

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Also I would like to see the budget for benefits and how much of that sits, going un-claimed? Scrap benefits as it is and introduce tax free UBI to ALL no matter their income.
I'm definitely interested in UBI but I don't think it should come in at the expense of certain benefits. For example, it obviously wouldn't be fair for everybody to receive the same UBI and no benefits. For some people that would be free money to do whatever with, for others a huge portion of it would be spent on medical or social care. People have different needs, and that would have to be reflected in what they're given. I don't see why UBI couldn't exist alongside certain benefits
 

sun_tzu

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I am for it.
Scrap benefits as it is and introduce tax free UBI to ALL no matter their income.
would that mean a disabled person with a couple of kids would be given the same as me... I mean Im a cold capitalist bastard but even I have my doubts about that being fair (ill still take the money and put ot towards more luxury watches though if its on offer)
 

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would that mean a disabled person with a couple of kids would be given the same as me... I mean Im a cold capitalist bastard but even I have my doubts about that being fair (ill still take the money and put ot towards more luxury watches though if its on offer)
I don't think that UBI means there aren't going to be a few other payments available but it will aim to replace unemployment benefits, standard medical pensions, aged pensions and some student grants.
 
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Edgar Allan Pillow

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I don't think that UBI means there aren't going to be a few other payments available but it will aim to replace unemployment benefits, standard medical pensions, aged pensions and some student grants.
An UBI is ideal only if it supplements benefits, not replaces them. Replacing benefits is an idea which has limited to no traction even for most economists.
 

RedNed77

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It’s going to have to happen at some point. Following the arguments made on here through to their logical conclusion, eventually all jobs, or enough of them as near dammit, will be performed by machines. Robots won’t be buying the stuff they make, so communism will become the default position. UBI is a good stepping stone to this ultimate end.
 

Revan

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It’s going to have to happen at some point. Following the arguments made on here through to their logical conclusion, eventually all jobs, or enough of them as near dammit, will be performed by machines. Robots won’t be buying the stuff they make, so communism will become the default position. UBI is a good stepping stone to this ultimate end.
Thought so not long ago, starting to have doubts about it. I think we are still quite far from the automation of most jobs, though progress is not always linear.
 

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You wont need it if you have a proper welfare system that does not allow people to fall through the cracks.
I think that's partly the point, ensuring that those that fall through the cracks don't fall so far. People can have their ability to earn affected by such a huge and diverse list of health, lifestyle and historical issues that it's impossible to write a welfare system complex enough to recognise them all, so the fair way might be not to judge people's need for a particular worthiness, but to accept their need as a right.

I don't know if UBI would work or not, but I would like to think it would. I recall how most people, including me, thought minimum wage wouldn't work either, but I'm glad to say now that nearly all of us have changed our mind.
 

RedNed77

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Thought so not long ago, starting to have doubts about it. I think we are still quite far from the automation of most jobs, though progress is not always linear.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be in any of our lifetimes, but I’d struggle to think of a job that couldn’t be done by a robot with developments in robotics and AI.
 

Neil_Buchanan

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I love the idea and not just because it would allow me to cut my hours and enjoy more leisure time whilst earning a little more money but I think it would be good for society, for peoples mental and physical health.
 

berbatrick

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An UBI is ideal only if it supplements benefits, not replaces them. Replacing benefits is an idea which has limited to no traction even for most economists.
It's the most high-profile plan (Yang has talked about transitioning people away from welfare), and from wht I understand, Milton Freidman et al, who were anti-welfare, proposed a negative income tax (a type of UBI). In other words, a UBI which is a replacement rather than a supplement is the most popular plan including among economists.
 

Revan

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It doesn’t necessarily have to be in any of our lifetimes, but I’d struggle to think of a job that couldn’t be done by a robot with developments in robotics and AI.
If it doesn’t happen within our lifetimes, then it isn’t something we need to worry about. Sure, some jobs might get automized, some new jobs might be born, and eventually more jobs might get automized than new jobs are being born, but as of know there are more new jobs created than old ones automized.

Saying that, I think that UBI should at least be explored and humanity should have contingency plans for the possible (but in my opinion, not very likely in mid term) event where most of jobs are automized and most of people are jobless.
 

Edgar Allan Pillow

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It's the most high-profile plan (Yang has talked about transitioning people away from welfare), and from wht I understand, Milton Freidman et al, who were anti-welfare, proposed a negative income tax (a type of UBI). In other words, a UBI which is a replacement rather than a supplement is the most popular plan including among economists.
It's what happens when you distill an generic idea into a practical concept.

https://publicpolicy.wharton.upenn.edu/live/news/3136-a-closer-look-at-universal-basic-income


Indeed, amongst most economists, support for a UBI program funded wholly by eliminating social welfare programs is unpopular. An IGM Global Experts Panel surveyed over 40 economists with the following question: “Granting every American citizen over 21-years old a universal basic income of $13,000 a year — financed by eliminating all transfer programs (including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, housing subsidies, household welfare payments, and farm and corporate subsidies) — would be a better policy than the status quo.” The responses were overwhelmingly negative, with only about 2% of economists surveyed agreeing with the prompt.

It’s important to note that the survey may not reflect economists’ sentiments towards the general concept of a basic income, but rather the means of funding suggested in the survey. Eric Laskin, one of the economists surveyed who disagreed with the prompt comments: “A minimum income makes sense, but not at the cost of eliminating Social Security and Medicare.”
 

berbatrick

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Yang also won't eliminate SOC sec or Medicare, but aid to disabled people, single mothers and, nutritional aid, stuff like that
 

Wibble

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An UBI is ideal only if it supplements benefits, not replaces them. Replacing benefits is an idea which has limited to no traction even for most economists.
It could replace almost all benefits and the vast majority of the current cost of administration but there are bound to be cases where a more traditional.social net are required in addition.
 

BluesJr

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There’s so much more to life than slaving away and working. What’s the point if you can never enjoy yourself? Life is literally not worth living if you never find any joy in it. For so many that’s the reality. I feel like not enough people grasp that. Too busy wrapped up in their existences to see the bigger picture.
 

George Owen

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You wont need it if you have a proper welfare system that does not allow people to fall through the cracks.
We will definitely still need it. To play the game of life, you need money (or credits) to spend. Welfare covers only the basics, but there is so much more to life than just to be able to survive.

By the year 2050, unemployment in the US will be around 25%.

Imagine having that many people without money (or credits) to spend on anything, not being able to go on holidays or buying some random stuff. Would be chaos.
 

Neil_Buchanan

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Logistically I just do not understand how it can work. It would surely place so much uncertainty on markets/financial systems.
Imagine they roll it out nationwide starting tomorrow, overnight the country's work force drastically changes as people cut their hours or quit their low earning jobs.
Robots/automation are supposed to take these jobs but would be ridiculously expensive, I'm sure McDonald's can afford burger flipping robots but what about the small businesses. I work in a family run timber yard that would never be able to afford automation, there's about 8 members of staff that would all want to cut their hours down immediately. The business would likely have to reduce its opening hours/possibly making less money, this happens up and down the country and the economy is in trouble.
I think this mass of uncertainty is what scares economists and that's why it won't happen for many decades, if ever.
 

Maagge

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Logistically I just do not understand how it can work. It would surely place so much uncertainty on markets/financial systems.
Imagine they roll it out nationwide starting tomorrow, overnight the country's work force drastically changes as people cut their hours or quit their low earning jobs.
Robots/automation are supposed to take these jobs but would be ridiculously expensive, I'm sure McDonald's can afford burger flipping robots but what about the small businesses. I work in a family run timber yard that would never be able to afford automation, there's about 8 members of staff that would all want to cut their hours down immediately. The business would likely have to reduce its opening hours/possibly making less money, this happens up and down the country and the economy is in trouble.
I think this mass of uncertainty is what scares economists and that's why it won't happen for many decades, if ever.
If people reduce their hours surely that means you have money to employ more people on reduced hours?
 

Marcelinho87

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Logistically I just do not understand how it can work. It would surely place so much uncertainty on markets/financial systems.
Imagine they roll it out nationwide starting tomorrow, overnight the country's work force drastically changes as people cut their hours or quit their low earning jobs.
Robots/automation are supposed to take these jobs but would be ridiculously expensive, I'm sure McDonald's can afford burger flipping robots but what about the small businesses. I work in a family run timber yard that would never be able to afford automation, there's about 8 members of staff that would all want to cut their hours down immediately. The business would likely have to reduce its opening hours/possibly making less money, this happens up and down the country and the economy is in trouble.
I think this mass of uncertainty is what scares economists and that's why it won't happen for many decades, if ever.
From the people I have spoken and myself included.. I wouldn't and they wouldn't be cutting hours, I would be using the extra income to just live a comfier life for me and my children.

My partner would be able to further her career through college/university thanks to this etc.
 

Neil_Buchanan

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From the people I have spoken and myself included.. I wouldn't and they wouldn't be cutting hours, I would be using the extra income to just live a comfier life for me and my children.

My partner would be able to further her career through college/university thanks to this etc.
That is surprising, I definitely need to look into this more then as I am assuming that everyone would follow my example and simply work a little less and enjoy more free time. I'm only 32 and have ambitions to have children and buy a house within my thirties, so Im not some lazy sod looking for an easy life, I am quite driven. I assumed that would be the path most would take.
 

Neil_Buchanan

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If people reduce their hours surely that means you have money to employ more people on reduced hours?
No doubt, I'm certain all the little details would balance out over time but that period of uncertainty is what scares economists.
 

Marcelinho87

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That is surprising, I definitely need to look into this more then as I am assuming that everyone would follow my example and simply work a little less and enjoy more free time. I'm only 32 and have ambitions to have children and buy a house within my thirties, so Im not some lazy sod looking for an easy life, I am quite driven. I assumed that would be the path most would take.
I expect a fair few would look to cut hours but my assumption is that would be the older ones whereas people like yourself and myself would look to invest the monies in ways to help us further our careers which in turn leads to better pensions etc for our older days.

That is what I would hope anyhow.
 

Red Dreams

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We will definitely still need it. To play the game of life, you need money (or credits) to spend. Welfare covers only the basics, but there is so much more to life than just to be able to survive.

By the year 2050, unemployment in the US will be around 25%.

Imagine having that many people without money (or credits) to spend on anything, not being able to go on holidays or buying some random stuff. Would be chaos.
I get what you are saying. But how does it work in the Scandinavian countries?
They are not just surviving.
There are programs to help people get to the next stage if they get unemployed and if they are old to retire with dignity.
 

George Owen

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I get what you are saying. But how does it work in the Scandinavian countries?
They are not just surviving.
There are programs to help people get to the next stage if they get unemployed and if they are old to retire with dignity.
For sure, today a strong welfare state is enough in certain well ran countries. But it won't be for long.

Even if Scandinavia has the strongest worker's rights, there is no way they can avoid the replacement of humans in productive labours. Unemployment will rise just like everywhere else.

Eventually, all the wealth will be created by machines, and the governments job will be to distribute it (if the machine owners let them).

So when that happens, aside from the basic welfare benefits (education, health..), people will still gonna need "pocket change" to spend in joy and random stuff. It's human nature. One of the ways we express our individuality (what horse to put your money on). And because resources are limited, we can't go full comunism and let everything to be free, so prices are gonna still be needed and markets will still be regulated by offer and demand.

So, some people might want to spend their credits (or money) eating overpriced food and starbucks, while some other will want to save those credits for a year, and then go on holidays to the touristic top destination.
 

Zlatattack

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I'm all for it. I'll be getting more money than i'll have to put in. I'm onto a winner there surely!

Also a UBI can help sure people aren't hungry, homeless, dying in cold weather etc. For those of us who don't have to worry about that, it could mean a simple case of more money to spend, or save - OR money by which we can buy back our own time, spend it on doing things we like, or with our families (just to clarify, spending time with my family is something i like - most of the time).
 

finneh

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I personally think it's a good idea, but given the potential cost I can't see how it could reasonably operate unless it was in tandem with privatisation of (some of) health, transport, houding, social services education and as a replacement for social protections. I also believe we're very close to the tip of the Laffer curve in terms of taxing the UK population so don't believe any meaningful extra funds can be derived from extra taxation. As an example assuming we want to give 50 million adults £8,000 each you're looking at a £400b cost, just under the total cost for all health and social protections combined. If you wanted to give £10,250 each you're looking at £525b which would consume the education budget as well (the three largest areas of spend)

Personally I'd be in favour of a staged approach over a lengthy period whereby all increases in government spending are instead committed to UBI. Assuming a c. 2.5% increase in government spend every year we could freeze all public sector spending and instead implement a UBI which would hit £5000 for every adult over a ten year period and over £10k over a 20 year period. However this is likely to be highly unpopular as a part of this £5000 would then be needed to be spent by parents to top up good education or likewise with health.

Personally though I think the freedom of being able to choose what a large portion of your £17k stake is spent on (£850b spend / 50 million adults) is better than clueless politicians making that decision for you and being given the decision every 5 years of which clueless politician you think will squander the least.

I'd bet you'd also see a monumental increase in charitable donations whereby people who don't need their UK dividend donate it to a cause close to their heart. I'd certainly donate my dividend, knowing that I could research the cause/organisation diligently, safe in the knowledge that it wasn't being squandered. I'd bet that the reduction in governmental spend would be more than replaced by more efficient charities who'd target those who actual need it, rather than giving me a £3500 grant to subsidise my Tesla.

I imagine most on here will disagree though!