Basic income: the world's simplest plan to end poverty, explained (long read--worth it)

[bnm8907]

Its not owing you a living, you've been on your knees for Adam Smith and Keynes too long. Allowing people a basic income to survive on is literally the most obvious solution on the planet, its shocking that wild animals have been doing this for millions of years while humans have been fighting to see who could have the bigger piece since soon after our evolution.
I never quite understood how people like you think. I bet if your ass had grown up incredibly poor, had been shunned a proper education, was never able to get a high paying job due to lack of education, and suffered for something you'd never really had control over, the idea of everyone being given at least a mildly equal playing field from birth would make sense to you.
Or if you weren't an idiot, you'd understand why this makes sense.
Good post OP.

Its amazing the lack of empathy some people have in this world.

I not sure if it will work but I love the idea. If anything its something we should be working toward. And the fact that there is even some support or traction for these ideas restores a little bit of my faith in humanity

 

[JahFocus CS]

Interesting how folks give more play and credence to these farfetched band-aids for a broken system (for the vast majority of people. It works for those it was intended to work for) than they do to class struggle

This would likely push inflation up and it'd be used as an excuse to eliminate what little social services exist.

 

[hu3ypdadon]

stopped reading after this...

no one owes you a living.....

No one deserves to be faced with poverty either after thier ancestors Were kidnapped and forced too build up wealth for foreign lands

 

[NERO]

I think many social welfare programs have taken what black people in America have fought for in the 19ths and early to mid 20th centuries and sent us backwards. We are worse off now than before integration. A global basic income payed for by? This is a ridiculous notion, sorry. Stop blowing money on Js or other discretionary spending and living within our means for one generation. Make sure we keep our families together and focus on our children doing well in school and our problems would be solved in ONE generation. People are too selfish and conditioned by the white man to believe that happiness comes in buying useless junk or in a bottle or a song or dance or game.

 

[Olu Dara]

Remove capitalism and introduce communism and you will end poverty

 

[newarkhiphop]

Subs

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Those studies found that work effort declined when a negative income tax was imposed, as predicted, but that the effect was quite small. Moreover, most of the reduction in work effort appeared to come from people taking longer stints of unemployment. That can be a bad thing, but it can also mean that people aren't settling for second-best jobs and holding out for ones that are better fits for them.

We are not at the point yet where human labor is not necessary for society to run... these MFers are jumping the gun

I think a basic income plan could work, but with the caveat that everyone who is able bodied/minded that gets it works.

There is NO REASON for people who can work to get paid not to work. We should be getting some kind of tangible value for the money we spend as tax payers.

 

[OsO]

A global basic income payed for by? This is a ridiculous notion, sorry.

paid for by the same people who always pay: the taxpayer.

it's far from a ridiculous notion. at its most basic level it's just a reallocation of funds.

 

[Blackking]

This is a no brainer...

IF by no brainer...

you mean a fantasy... more sci-fi than Starwars.... would never happen in a million years. They'd exterminate half of Earths population before something like this would even be considered................type of no brainer.

 

[L&HH]

That is why you're an idiot. It's not framed as anyone being "owed" anything. I really hope you never post in any thread I make again.

We are not at the point yet where human labor is not necessary for society to run... these MFers are jumping the gun

I think a basic income plan could work, but with the caveat that everyone who is able bodied/minded that gets it works.

There is NO REASON for people who can work to get paid not to work. We should be getting some kind of tangible value for the money we spend as tax payers.

So I just read an AMA from the co-chair of the basic income network and he answered a couple questions I had.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2ggt2c/basic_income_ama_series_im_karl_widerquist/

@GinaThatAintNoDamnPuppy! in response to your comment, his solution is no you don't have to force ppl to work but if someone is completely content with just scraping by and living through the basics then that's on them.

As far as ppl being being "owed" anything. I think he would argue that human beings are owed something and he expounds on it in this comment:

To your second question, our goods are not created solely by human effort. We can't produce anything without resources. But we don't share our resources. Some people own them. Some are propertyless. Without a basic income a small group of people uses the power of the legal system to take control of all the Earth's resources. Property owners pay each other for control of resources, but--without basic income--they never pay the propertyless for being born into a society where they own nothing. Without basic income their only access to resources is to work for an owner. Basic income is really just paying back for what you take. If you take ownership of resources, you own something back to all the people who are therefore not allowed to use those resources. What you owe is taxes, and those taxes should be paid back to all the people who would otherwise be propertyless. Basic Income is not something for nothing. It is paying back for the resources you take out of the common pool.

 

[No1]

So I just read an AMA from the co-chair of the basic income network and he answered a couple questions I had.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2ggt2c/basic_income_ama_series_im_karl_widerquist/

@GinaThatAintNoDamnPuppy! in response to your comment, his solution is no you don't have to force ppl to work but if someone is completely content with just scraping by and living through the basics then that's on them.

As far as ppl being being "owed" anything. I think he would argue that human beings are owed something and he expounds on it in this comment:

Right, but I'm obviously talking about the way people use the word "owe" as if it's people feeling their entitled to something they don't deserve and that others worked for. This idea is closer to the concept that dignity is inherent to humanity and that a person's humanity alone is why they should be provided with work. With that said, I feel like a lot of people did not read the counterarguments in the very article.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

@GinaThatAintNoDamnPuppy! in response to your comment, his solution is no you don't have to force ppl to work but if someone is completely content with just scraping by and living through the basics then that's on them.

Naw, it's on the people who work to have more than the bare minimum that will be funding this whole thing, which is my fundamental beef with this line of thinking.

If there is a base level of living and needs everyone has, then on the flip side there has to be a base level of contribution of time and effort everyone has to make to have their needs met.

U look at shyt like communes, food co-ops etc, yes everyone is guaranteed some level of food and shelter, but the flip side is everyone who buys in has to put in work.

The only way this can work is if everyone who takes the bare minimum has to put that bare minimum back into the system through work. Theres plenty of work to be done as well... our infrastructure is falling apart, there is data to be mined, etc etc. So the idea that the only way forward is through this forced wealth transfer is no go for me.

 

[Camile.Bidan]

Hey look at the Bond villain

Bond Villain? This isn't about comic books or fantasy movies. This is about the genetic legacy of the human race.


Evolution has accelerated since the neothilic era began, it has not Stopped.

We know in the cases such as lactose tolerance that those Lactose tolerance genes simply out-bred those without this genes in Germany and other areas.

In our society, the smart people have kids later in life and they don't have many kids period. While the idiots have more and more kids, and are spurred on by liberal policies that have no consideration of the future of the human race in mind.


Let me give a people little wake-up call. Wealth Transfers will NEVER fix poverty in the world. They will become indefinitely dependent on wealth transfers. They will be sustained by the wealth transfers.

Any policy that allows people with bad traits to outbreed those with good traits will have a devastating effect on the global human population.

This isn't a fukking game.

 

[Fillerguy]

This isn't a fukking game.

You're right. If only we had a solution to finally solve this problem, and a way to spot these genetic dead ends... for the public to see them for what they are. To make it easier to round them up.

 

[Camile.Bidan]

You're right. If only we had a solution to finally solve this problem, and a way to spot these genetic dead ends... for the public to see them for what they are. To make it easier to round them up.

We don't need to identify them. Process of misery and poverty has already identified them.


Let fate do on to them what it has done to all life for the last 4 billion years on this spinning rock.