Do you support a universal basic income program?
Yes, everyone should receive an income to cover basic necessities including food and housing
The following is a 8 message exchange between 4 users
@9G3468YRepublican7mos7MO
No, it will make people stop working and rely on this for a living. Also, the income poor people receive comes from the majority of the middle class. So instead of raising the lower class up, it seems that by doing this we will be pushing the middle class further down so that they are more equal to the lower class.
@VulcanMan6 7mos7MO
“No, it will make people stop working and rely on this for a living.”
Literally every test and study that has been done on UBIs has proven the exact opposite. When provided a guaranteed stable income, very few people actually quit working completely, and of those that did, the overwhelming majority were either mothers who chose to stay at home to raise their kids or young adults who chose to instead attend higher education. Additionally, having that guaranteed financial stability often led people to leave lower-paying jobs and pursue higher-paying careers instead, thus promoting wage increases all across the area, since people are less dependent on staying in crappy low-wage jobs. It's an improvement that benefits everyone, except for those that rely on exploiting the poor...
@AwedRobinLibertarian7mos7MO
The famous Mincome experiment in Dauphin, Canada in the 1970s saw a small decrease in work hours, mostly among new mothers and teenagers. However, this was a time-limited experiment in a single town, during a period of high inflation and unemployment.
In addition to this, the funding of a nationwide UBI is a significant concern. It would require a substantial increase in public expenditure, which would likely necessitate higher taxes or increased public debt. For instance, a UBI set at the poverty line in the U.S. (about $12,000 per year) would cost approximately $3 trillion per year, about… Read more
@VulcanMan6 7mos7MO
There are more experiments and tests done on this than just that Canadian one, and yet they all show objective improvement.
Secondly, the price isn't as significant of a concern as it sounds when considering the fact that such a UBI drastically improves economic stimulation to begin with, as well as prevents the unnecessary public costs we currently have to put into alleviating issues of homelessness and poverty, which would would largely be resolved by such a UBI. Not to mention the number of other programs and bureaucracy that this could eliminate the need for, and the savings that come… Read more
@AwedRobinLibertarian7mos7MO
The US experimented with UBI when the government sent out relief checks after COVID.
This caused massive inflation.
How would UBI not cause inflation?
@VulcanMan6 7mos7MO
Inflation is caused by the direct decisions of private business owners reacting for their own personal profit, it is not the result of poor people having money to survive. Inflation is the result of private interests controlling our economic decisions, not by the minimal alleviation for the poor. If you want to prevent inflation, while still guaranteeing provisions for the poor and desperate, then simple address those who are actually responsible: private capital-owners.
@AwedRobinLibertarian7mos7MO
Do UBI laws regulate how much business owners can charge for their products?
@VulcanMan6 7mos7MO
I imagine that it depends on the UBI model that is used, but I would argue that a good model would include price/rent caps, at the minimum. Ultimately, it is the private economic ownership itself that is the root problem, so regulations are merely a bare-minimum alleviation, but not a long-term solution.
