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For young college graduates, the unemployment rate is currently 7.2 percent (compared with 5.5 percent in 2007), and the underemployment rate is 14.9 percent (compared with 9.6 percent in 2007).
7.2% is a lot higher than all unemployment, but it is a mile away from 50%.
Not wasting time reading this thread. Basic income like every other liberal socialist idea boils down to one thing and one thing only. People who do not earn or earn enough must be given money or goods from people who have more.
Stupid fools will never understand this kindergarden concept. Everything is some pie in the sky feel good gimmick.
It's not about being smart, it's about hard work and delayed gratification. Of course not everyone can be a Doctor of any sort, but anyone can work hard for a decade post high school graduation, 60-80/hrs a week hard, dedicating nearly every spare moment to bettering ones self and they be something.
Ten years after walking on at a construction site and someone can get enough OJT to be a foreman.
Ten years after first jobbing as a fry cook and someone can manage a store.
You are totally right, you have to start at the bottom, but there is the ability to move up from there. Not globally, where people truly know poverty and lack up upward mobility, but here in the US it's there for anyone who puts nose to grindstone.
That's the point I'm making about MD's, PhDs, and DO's. It's not that they are smart, it that they have willed work ethic into a decade of making less than minimum wage while doing double the proto workweek. And it's not always a windfall at the end of the tunnel, money/time a primary care doc makes the same per hour over a lifetime as a teacher.
I don't think you have considered the long-term consequences of people ALL remaining single until they are in their 30's (How TF does anyone working 80 hours a week find the time to even date?????)
It's not about being smart, it's about hard work and delayed gratification. Of course not everyone can be a Doctor of any sort, but anyone can work hard for a decade post high school graduation, 60-80/hrs a week hard, dedicating nearly every spare moment to bettering ones self and they be something.
Ten years after walking on at a construction site and someone can get enough OJT to be a foreman.
Ten years after first jobbing as a fry cook and someone can manage a store.
You are totally right, you have to start at the bottom, but there is the ability to move up from there. Not globally, where people truly know poverty and lack up upward mobility, but here in the US it's there for anyone who puts nose to grindstone.
That's the point I'm making about MD's, PhDs, and DO's. It's not that they are smart, it that they have willed work ethic into a decade of making less than minimum wage while doing double the proto workweek. And it's not always a windfall at the end of the tunnel, money/time a primary care doc makes the same per hour over a lifetime as a teacher.
Your post assumes that those that work the hardest and do the best jobs will be rewarded accordingly. I don't believe that's true anymore. I'm very lucky to work for a good company now, but my overall experience is that the truly gifted and special employees walk around with a target on their back. More often than not, they are managed out or fired. Human nature is such that most people don't want the next guy (who is smarter than they are) taking their job. To me this is one of the biggest problems out there- there is no meritocracy anymore.
I don't think you have considered the long-term consequences of people ALL remaining single until they are in their 30's (How TF does anyone working 80 hours a week find the time to even date?????)
Excellent point.
Not to mention that the suggested strategy does nothing to address the systemic supply vs. demand problem.
Okay that was a long paragraph about nothing. Bootstrapping only works in a perfect world where everyone is smart enough to get better jobs and there are enough better jobs for everyone to get. That is not the world we live in.
And bootstrapping is always debunked by the lazy and entitled.
I'll bite - to guarantee a basic income, that money must come from someone. Who will that be? The folks that practice bootstrapping? And how long, exactly, do you think they'll tolerate the lazy, dumb and entitled taking their hard earned money before they decide to sit back and "take"? Not long, I imagine, especially since they appear to be smarter than everyone else.
Show me the studies then you saying it does not prove anything. Basic income will only cover your basic needs food, housing and transportation that is it if you want anything else you have to work for it and I would day that most people would want more.
It that's the case, they the argument could be made that if they want the basics, they would have to work for it. No?
And bootstrapping is always debunked by the lazy and entitled.
I'll bite - to guarantee a basic income, that money must come from someone. Who will that be? The folks that practice bootstrapping? And how long, exactly, do you think they'll tolerate the lazy, dumb and entitled taking their hard earned money before they decide to sit back and "take"? Not long, I imagine, especially since they appear to be smarter than everyone else.
Do you not see a problem here?
How come 'they' don't seem to care about corporate welfare?
I'll bite - to guarantee a basic income, that money must come from someone.
How does this someone *get* that money? Is there some holy and sacrosanct creed that dictates that our system distributes money in a fair or efficient manner?
If you pay attention, you will notice that there is little correlation between how much money a person makes and how much benefit they give to society as a whole. Economic benefit or otherwise. Rather the greatest riches tend to go to those who do the greatest harm.
The people who really drive living standards upward are the inventors, scientists, and engineers who develop better tech that increases productivity. With a few rare exceptions though, these people are middle class. Rather it is the wheelers and dealers, the financiers, the already rich, the marketeers, the lawyers, who simply *extract* wealth from the system who are getting rich.
If you check back, the reason we need a BI is because consumer capitalism is a dying system. Advances in computers and robotics will soon make a growing % of the population unemployable. Presently in the US the lower skilled are suffering from the effects of perpetual trade deficits and offshoring, and the near complete elimination of unions. It will only get worse.
A BI is very libertarian actually, since it is simple and eliminates a lot of bureaucracy. Give everyone enough money to survive in poverty and then let them do as they please.
It's easy to pay for. For a BI of ~$8k/yr the net hit on taxes would be ~5% of GDP, and the US would still remain one of the lowest taxed developed countries.
Last edited by rruff; 03-09-2016 at 11:55 AM..
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