Quote:
Originally Posted by AltaGuy
The private sector and private wealth - if they want to keep it and keep the rule of law protecting property rights - will need to play ball with the government in some fashion to redistribute wealth. Not sure if this is UBI or not, but high numbers of unemployed or underemployed people don't lead to good things historically.
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Yes, it's clear government won't be able to fund UBI with our existing taxation model. There must be buy-in from private wealth and corporations. Not only to head off the unrest that steepening inequality will provoke, but to keep the wheels of the economy spinning. Our economy is built on middle-class consumer spending. If we no longer have a middle class, or if people simply don't have the money to spend on consumer goods and services, corporations will take a big hit. I doubt the 20 per cent alone can keep the consumer economy humming, though I expect we'll go through a period where do try to rely on the 20 per cent before it becomes apparent it won't work.
I've been thinking one of the ways the corporate world may prime the pump to keep the wheels spinning is to subsidize their own customers in exchange for market share. A person could sign a contract with Amazon or Walmart or some other retailer (or maybe a package of aligned sellers) in exchange for steep discounts in price. No idea how feasible that would be, but it's just an example of how consumer capitalism will need to evolve dramatically to succeed in a world where only highly skilled labour has value and only the highly skilled have money.