Universal Basic Income

[Admiral]

so what evryone think about this

[Haruto Rat]

Free things are worth what you pay for them.

[Gregg]

Interesting concept.

[jetsina]

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Free things are worth what you pay for them.

If that were so, then smiles and a helpful hand would be worthless too.
If the scale goes from zero to a hundred, then where do I and others draw a line of not doing something for free?

Most people say they need to be paid for their work so that they can afford to live, because that is the system we live in. Many people I know would like changes to that system, however. Not complete changes to the system, but where the basics can be met without earnt income required - a universal basic income.

Personally, I think it is time for resources and polluting actions to finally be valued, as these are indeed abused as if they are free and have no consequences. One problem with energy and material prices which reflect this, however, is that poor people have always suffered when prices rise. An UBI model could be used to pay back the higher costs to the people. People as a whole are not worse off, but would 'respect' the use of energy and materials more, as it is now given a higher value. This would lead to better efficiency, less waste etc.

In that sense I agree with the above: thus, energy and materials should not be as 'almost free' as they are now. On top of that, yes I also believe in an UBI which covers the basics of living on top of this energy/pricing model.

[Bones]

If you were to give everyone 50 million dollars , they would all be millionaires.

A loaf of bread would also cost 5k dollars and the kid mowing your lawn would charge 25k .

[AxeMurderer]

I just want to know who is going to pickup the trash in the morning.

[Svarog]

If you prevent people from falling low they will never learn to bounce high.

[San]

A better concept would be "Universal Basic Credit" directly at the source of fiat money. This would create a "human gold standard" and remove slavery from the current system where social security expenses are taken by force from the productive, thereby implementing all sections of the UDHR without them conflicting each other.

[GeorgeSkywalker]

a lot of negativity towards universal basic income here. As far as I know from the studies conducted in this the results were surprisingly positive.

I suspect we are used to the system that we have and something completely different like this isn't taken too seriously by most folks. However, I think there is merit in this system and something like this could be forced upon us by governments when advancements in AI leads to many job losses.

[BlackHawk]

UBI is how the economy will work in future or we will go extinct. However, at this time, it can not work at scale.
Current economy has lots of other problems to solve. The level of automation is not where it should be to allow for UBI based economy.
A country who decides to implement such a thing, will see that the only way ti sustain it is by taxing the sectors of economy that are productive. The result is that more and more will move to other countries where is just cheaper to produce and sell. For UBI to work, it would need to be implemented in multiple places and those places must have high level of productivity already. Advances in AI will probably bring us there in the next 10-15 years, but not just now.
Before UBI, there are several other aspects of economy that need to change. One of those aspects is planned obsolescence. An economy that needs to grow and it needs to generate needs, it will want to create products that fail, so new products are purchased. This aspect of economy has good and bad consequences. The bad ones are obvious, but on the flip side, it supports technological advancement and innovation. Another thing is that your products break before you get bored with them. When automation becomes ubiquitous, this will become an aspect that will concern us all.


Further more, even tho I believe UBI will be a feature of our existence in the very near future, I believe that it will lead to us destroying ourselves. Many people will lack the need to chase meaningful goals, and society will crumble, and I expect an outcome similar to the one in rats paradise experiment.