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$1000 a month is nothing to me and Id probably donate it to charity but $1000 could seriously lift lots of people into a much better standard of living. I still have serious concerns about how we're going to pay for this but I definitely like the concept.
It suffers from what economists call the "nominal fallacy". What do you suppose will happen, for instance, to the level of rents when everyone has an additional $1000 per month to spend? What will happen to food prices? Money is a commodity in a capitalist system the same as any other commodity. We are accustomed to thinking of the price of goods in terms of money. We know that supply and demand control that price. An increase in the supply of a good without a corresponding increase in demand results in the reduction of that good's price. The same goes for money. We can think of the price of money in terms of other goods. An increase in the supply of money, such as what a UBI would entail, would cause a decrease in the price of money. IOW, it would take fewer goods to purchase a given amount of money. This is inverse of our normal way of thinking, but is equivalent to saying that it would now take more money to purchase a given amount of goods. It sounds like a good idea, but without a corresponding increase in the productivity of the economy (i.e. an increase in the demand for money), it would lead to inflation. With that inflation, the benefit becomes questionable.
Between all of that, the War on Drugs, and the handling of 9/11 and the War on Terror...I'm surprised Americans haven't burned down Washington. I guess Monday Night Football or DWTS will have to be interrupted for folks to care...
Any proposal of this sort would eradicate the need for food stamps, cash aid, SSI, etc., which may save on administrative costs, and would get rid of any concept of a "welfare office", aside for things like Medicaid (which obviously would be handled by single-payer at some point (also inevitable IMO)).
The labor force has been shrinking since 2000, with no signs of that changing any time soon. Automation and outsourcing may even speed that up.
In my own personal experience, finding people who care about their jobs/care about working is becoming harder to find as well, particularly at the working class level. Unfortunately, I don't have much hope that will change.
These studies are bullsh*t why are we trying to fix a system that isn't broken? It would kill our productivity, cause capital flight, massive inflation lowering our collective standard of living. To say this would give people a cushion to innovate & start their own business is a joke, it would just be a massive welfare program. A much better proven way to jump start small business and innovation just get government out people's way. Leftist economic experiments do not have the best track record incase you havent noticed.
In the Ontario example, they are starting this with a pilot study by randomly selecting households making less than $48,000 CAD a year to take part, and then studying the results and impacts on the economic welfare and general well-being of the impacted households. A single person is eligible to receive up to $17,000 CAD per year, while a couple $24,000 CAD per year, in addition to their conventional forms of income. Disabled persons are eligible for an additional $6,000 per year.
Personally, I'd rather wait and see the results and impacts of this pilot, rather than make preconceived judgments on the outcomes when there is limited data to evaluate the pros and cons.
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