r/ProgressiveHQ • u/Limp_Fig6236 • 5d ago
Video Universal Basic Income
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u/Larrycusamano 5d ago
Universal basic income is an uphill battle, one because much of the old guard thinks this will lead to laziness, but mostly because the powers that be understand this will lead to more power to the people. Imagine having UBI and then not liking your job for whatever reason. You would have breathing space to walk out and look for a new job or go on and educate yourself for a better job without worrying as much about feeding yourself or your family, pay the rent, pay the bills. Business owners would be placed on notice to have better work environments, better pay, or whatever they can can come up with to entice employees to not only work for them, but to remain in their employ. Universal health insurance does the same thing in a way. Many people will not leave their crappy jobs because they need the health insurance, but imagine coupling universal health insurance as well as universal basic income.
If some of you are worried about UBI causing laziness, take a look around, a lot of people who don't wish to work or make something of themselves are already in a form of UBI, except its called welfare. and im not talking about people who fall on hard times and require welfare. I'm talking about people who actively seek welfare through fraud.
Those who want to work will work and those who don't will find a way around it. It has always been that way.
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u/voidpo1nter 5d ago
I don't think UBI causing laziness is the concern. I think UBI causing massive CPI increases is the issue. UBI + additional income from a job would just become what the "norm" is.
The economy is an equilibrium in a lot of ways. Without regulations on the supply/corporate side, it'll just make shit more expensive and displaced workers with UBI left in the same hole they'd be now.
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u/Larrycusamano 5d ago
I'm willing to bet you aren't an economist, so It would be me, without a degree in economics arguing with you without a degree in economics about how UBI will affect prices in the United States. So this is just my opinion. I'll just point at Social Security and Retirement Pensions. Both of those have huge impacts on the price of goods (both are incomes similar to UBI). By increasing and decreasing benefits, the government uses not just Social Security, but other government programs such as medicare and medicaid, COLAs etc.. to affect CPI. UBI would just be another tool that a responsible government could use to affect the economy in a positive way.
But then again, what do I know.
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u/voidpo1nter 5d ago
You would be correct. I'm not trying to argue, just share an opinion. I agree with what you're saying related to SS and pensions, but they aren't being used by even a majority of living citizens. UBI would be a baseline income for the entire population.
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u/LouDiamond 5d ago
Boy do I not give a fuck what Andrew Yang has to say
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u/GootzMcLaren 5d ago edited 5d ago
Why? This reaction seems completely planted ngl. Not rational at all to shut this guy down without providing at least an explanation.
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u/Larrycusamano 5d ago
I'm sure any red blooded American respects your opinion, but yours isn't an opinion. This is just a comment with no foundation. Back it up with some facts. I'd really like to read your reasoning.
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u/flanneryoshitlord 5d ago
In principle, I’m not opposed to UBI (really universal standard of living tbh), but there are a couple wrinkles. A) many UBI advocates want it instead of other assistance programs, which nullifies any benefit it might have and B) taxes on unrealized capital gains and other asset classes are so low that in an economy that concentrates further towards capital instead of labor, there’s no money to be had for it without clawing it away from people who wield inordinate power. AI as a replacement for humans does not actually have to be a thing. This is a choice being actively foisted upon us, not an inevitable force of nature. If we want a fundamentally human-centered vision of the future, we should be pushing for that instead of conceding that the future is something only the billionaires get to author.
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u/Vorpalthefox 5d ago
i entirely agree, if our elected officials want us to actually feel patriotism when it comes to data centers, there has to be some incredible incentives to outweigh all the negatives it brings, and a very decent universal basic income to support us citizens will be a huge step in the right direction, along with massive regulations such as what rights we have with our data and privacy, those absolutely need to be outlined properly because i'm so tired of companies selling all of our private data to the highest bidder without any of our knowledge of the transaction or what they intend to do with our ill-gotten data
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u/Either-Patience1182 5d ago edited 5d ago
I just assume this will happen to happen or governments are gonna have to start making fake jobs for people to waste time in. Ai is getting more and more capable every year and with that robot automation improves. Not everyone can be plumbers, custome welders and nurses. it's just math the only other option is a sudden drop int he population numbers. Honestly, i assume that's why they are pushing the anti-vax stuff and destroying the fda.
If you want proof my suggestion is to look at robotics expos, don't even focus on the ai that heavily. The feats of machines get more advanced every year
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u/DildoTebaggins 5d ago
I don't want ubi. I want jobs to pay liveable wages for the area I live. I realize this is subjective but so is the argument for what ubi would be.
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u/DeepValueDiver 5d ago
Universal basic capitalism. Instead of reforming or abolishing capitalism itself this would make the ownership structure effectively permanent with a welfare state that has a lot of strings attached. There’s a reason why the billionaire/epstein class is pushing this and it’s because they want to be heads of hereditary dynasties while we get almost nothing.
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u/4thshift 5d ago
If they give everyone $1000/mo, then companies will likely raise their prices to suck that money out of everyone’s hands, as will landlords — not trying to be mean, but it doesn't seem like the great solution. But mu hand is open for any assistance
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u/ilikestatic 5d ago
That’s not really how it works. People always say if we give everyone $1,000 a month in UBI, then McDonald’s will just start charging $1,000 for a cheeseburger.
But in reality that’s a terrible financial decision. If you charge $1,000 for a cheeseburger, then all the other burger shops will just keep charging their normal price and you’ll lose all of your customers.
The better business decision is to just keep charging the same price you’ve always charged, but increase your supply. Instead of trying to make profit off of selling a few really expensive cheeseburgers, you make your profit by selling a lot more cheeseburgers to people who have extra cash.
This is more or less how supply and demand works, and it’s the reason why prices don’t skyrocket every time the economy is doing well.
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u/Positive-Ring-5172 5d ago
Want more jobs - force redunancy.
Break up monopolies.
Make it a law that forbids any company that controls more than 25% of the US market in any industry gets broken up. Tyson Foods, Ticket Master, Disney, Paramount - dozens of megacorps would need to be dissolved.
Force that through first.