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Do you support Universal Basic Income?

Is Universal Basic Income a good idea.

  • Yes

    Votes: 20 40.0%

  • Free Housing, Food, Medicine plus Allowance is better

    Votes: 5 10.0%

  • Current system is better

    Votes: 9 18.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 16 32.0%
  • Total voters
    50
S

SCitizen

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It is an interesting idea. Everyone would be provided for even if they can not work. Unfortunately, some people would spend such income on drugs. I believe a much better plan would be the provision of free housing, free food, and free medical care to anyone who does not have them. Maybe that should be supplemented by a small allowance.
 
SCitizen said:
It is an interesting idea. Everyone would be provided for even if they can not work. Unfortunately, some people would spend such income on drugs. I believe a much better plan would be the provision of free housing, free food, and free medical care to anyone who does not have them. Maybe that should be supplemented by a small allowance.
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No. I support personal responsibility.

Nothing is free. What you mean is redistribution of wealth.
 
SCitizen said:
Tens of millions of people do not have the ability.
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That seems to be an awfully big number to just throw out there and expect everyone to believe it.
 
SCitizen said:
Tens of millions of people do not have the ability.
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And tenser of millions either have the ability and have chosen not to be productive members of society or are not able to participate solely due to their own actions. I have no desire to contribute to either group.
 
SCitizen said:
It is an interesting idea. Everyone would be provided for even if they can not work. Unfortunately, some people would spend such income on drugs. I believe a much better plan would be the provision of free housing, free food, and free medical care to anyone who does not have them. Maybe that should be supplemented by a small allowance.
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Are you kidding me? Who now has free housing, free food and free medical care? The answer of nobody immediately comes to mind - thus you are proposing this benefit for everyone and thus to be paid for by nobody.

Your link gives us no example of this being done anywhere on the planet and probably for a very simple reason - the free housing, free food and free medical care "industry" would go broke on day one.
 
jimbo said:
And tenser of millions either have the ability and have chosen not to be productive members of society or are not able to participate solely due to their own actions.
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For many people who have depression, finding and maintaining a job is impossible.
 
I think some day in the future once AI and automation have advanced significantly more than they are now we may need to go that route or completely reinvent capitalism. But it isn't time for that yet.
 
SCitizen said:
Tens of millions of people do not have the ability.
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SCitizen said:
Tens of millions of people have mental disorders. Some of these people can succeed, but some can not.
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One of these things does not look like the other. OK. Two steps back.

I don't believe that AMI prevents someone from contributing to the public pot. I'll bet that even only a small percentage of the SMI can't.

Most interesting to note that you've cited what appears to be an mental health promotion NGO driven by contributions, rather than scholarly articles and studies or NIH or American Psychiatric Association. But oh well.
 
Yes, I do support it and I believe that governments should begin building the foundations of future programs now rather than later.

Automation will be absolutely devastating to low-skill workers. It will make the bad economic conditions that motivated Trump supporters look like a nice day out in the park.
 
brothern said:
Automation will be absolutely devastating to low-skill workers. It will make the bad economic conditions that motivated Trump supporters look like a nice day out in the park.
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Thank you -- thus people who are not even disabled will also find themselves "useless" to society!
 
SCitizen said:
Thank you -- thus people who are not even disabled will also find themselves "useless" to society!
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The idea of "personal responsibility" is farcical when your construction or insurance underwriting job is automated out of existence. :/
 
brothern said:
The idea of "personal responsibility" is farcical when your construction or insurance underwriting job is automated out of existence. :/
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Definitely. There has been a growing shortage of jobs for a long time now. And many socially disabled people can not find a job.
 
SCitizen said:
For many people who have depression, finding and maintaining a job is impossible.
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OK. What's your point?

For many people finding and maintaining a job is inconvenient.
 
SCitizen said:
It is an interesting idea. Everyone would be provided for even if they can not work. Unfortunately, some people would spend such income on drugs. I believe a much better plan would be the provision of free housing, free food, and free medical care to anyone who does not have them. Maybe that should be supplemented by a small allowance.
Click to expand...
Universal Basic Income is certainly an interesting idea and I think it could work in a lot of places. The problem is that it would require a massive shift in culture and economy which I think would be the difficult aspect, especially with all the politicos who would inevitably seek to spin it to their own advantage.

The problem with your alternative proposal is the complexity in administering and implementing it. One of the benefits of Universal Basic Income is its simplicity, meaning the difficulty and costs of implementing it would be low.
 
I can appreciate the good intentions behind this, but my opinion is that human nature is such that people would get very lazy.

Society should balance helping those who cannot work with encouraging productivity.
 
Snakebite said:
I can appreciate the good intentions behind this, but my opinion is that human nature is such that people would get very lazy.

Society should balance helping those who cannot work with encouraging productivity.
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The road to hell is paved with them, beware of do gooders and their so called good intentions. For no villain regards himself as evil.

Intentions are worthless.
 
Spartacus FPV said:
The road to hell is paved with them, beware of do gooders and their so called good intentions. For no villain regards himself as evil.

Intentions are worthless.
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True enough, but I'll play devil's advocate - I'd prefer good intentions to bad ones any day!
 
Snakebite said:
True enough, but I'll play devil's advocate - I'd prefer good intentions to bad ones any day!
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Care to name a bad intention? One of consequence that anyone openly holds? I don't mean a mere difference in values, I mean an outright bad intention held by someone in a position of power?

I can't say that I've ever heard one espoused that wasn't trivial, like "Tonight I'm getting ****ed up!"
 
Spartacus FPV said:
Care to name a bad intention? One of consequence that anyone openly holds? I don't mean a mere difference in values, I mean an outright bad intention held by someone in a position of power?

I can't say that I've ever heard one espoused that wasn't trivial, like "Tonight I'm getting ****ed up!"
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The Vikings. Vikings were some bad hombres with bad intentions. They raided villages and countries with the sole purpose of raping and pillaging. They liked women, and they liked silver, and they took whatever they liked.

In more modern times...

HAMAS has the stated goal of the destruction of Israel. ISIS has the stated goal of a global Caliphate and the death of all infidels.

If you remember the fighting in Rwanda... that was all about ethnic cleansing. There are many such examples.
 
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