Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
Universal means universal. It goes to everyone. It's not a circumstance of you can either work for what you make or get UBI. You get it regardless. So the choice isn't between doing your existing job for 30k or nothing for 25k, it's between doing your existing job for 55k or nothing for 25k.
Obviously it's not that simple, because the market will adjust salaries and what was a 30k job in the original context may be something else once things settle down, and of course the 25k is just a number - you hear lots of different baseline numbers being thrown around. But the gist is that the soon-to-be large class of unemployed and those in unskilled jobs that aren't replaced by automation aren't going to end up abjectly poor, and can live lives that are still very modest, yet nonetheless dignified.
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Just sounds like that's going to lead to inflation. If the cost of an apartment downtown is $1,500, and you give everyone an extra $25k/year to bid on that cost, then the cost of the apartment goes up. The person who owns the apartment makes out like a bandit. Meanwhile the CEO who makes $1 million/year, isn't really affected, as even with a $25k bump, the things he buys are so expensive no one is competing with him.
Raising people out of poverty requires actually giving them goods. Money is meaningless paper.
I like the idea of GBI, but any time anything similar has been tried in the past, the end result is the same. Over time, the poor to middle upper class end up in a race to the bottom. The wealthy become really wealthy. Venezuela tried something very similar. The end effect was virtually all industries collapsing, the population being dependent on oil revenues, and a few people being very very rich.