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You are idealizing human beings. A huge portion of humanity is already unproductive and lazy. Removing the need for being employed would make them worse. There are large swaths of cities where unemployment is widespread and these areas aren't bustling with innovation. These areas tend to be dilapidated and unkempt. There are all these people who aren't even working now and they have plenty of free time to get things done, yet they don't. These areas are filled with drugs, crime, and social dysfunction. Only in a fantasy world would basic income male these people more productive.
Sadly accurate post. I commute via a train station where many beg who have not, no doubt, ever thought about working in their lives.
BTW...Not to be paranoid but I can not for the life of my see the good in robots and especially AI. At the rate we're going it won't be long and the elite will no longer need the masses. What then? My answer ain't pretty for humankind.
This has already happened. Need I mention Detroit? Flint? Many other places where automation and outsourcing has done away with the economy....and replaced by nothing?
Obviously there are too many jobs...even now...because Trump just let in 15,000 more immigrants to do jobs he says Americans aren't applying to do.
Most of what you are discussing has already happened. As far as the "missing taxes" - it's as if you are forgetting the 20 Trillion Dollar Debt. That number is taxes that should have been paid - but are not.
But - don't worry. As we speak the GOP and Trump are trying to cut taxes even more so we can add to that debt. Why worry about later when we can have money NOW?
I think you're underestimating how much people don't like boredom. Why do you think we put children in time out. There's no real lesson there. If you steal a cookie from the cookie jar, righting the wrong would involve replacing the cookie, not losing your gameboy (or iPad since it's not 1995 anymore). Suddenly, a child without his computer or tv privileges is bored, and they either find a way to fill their time productively (reading a book, for example) or suffer through the boredom with the knowledge that stealing a cookie will force them to endure said boredom again.
The adult version of that same thing is called prison, by the way.
Presumably, UBI would only cover the most necessary of things. That's very little, actually. An example, my two favorite beverages, coffee and beer, would almost certainly not be considered basic needs. I'd then have to do something extra in order to have those simple pleasures.
The idea that there would be people who could suffer through such boredom for very long is absurd to me. People would find themselves being productive. And actually productive. Most studies done on productivity find that the many overworked and extremely stressed Americans would actually be more productive if they worked fewer hours and had more generous break time. With that in mind, surely a UBI system would still be an improvement in productivity to what we have now.
It would offend me to the core to be taken care of. I won't bore anyone with why. Some people will totally get it and others won't.
You are idealizing human beings. A huge portion of humanity is already unproductive and lazy
I am somewhat interested in what you or others call "productive"?
Is, for instance, a copy machine salesperson (when there are already more than enough) productive? How about 100 Relators in an office that needs only 20? Were the millions who sold, appraised and wrote mortgages to help create the 2008 crisis "productive"?
How about day traders? Are they productive?
How about a hard working (illegal) pot dealer? Productive?
Is a homeless guy who spends his day getting bottles and cans from trash cans for recycling money "productive"?
How about a guy like me who sits back and collects stock dividends? Am I productive?
I'm not trying to be funny here - just trying to illustrate that - IMHO - only a VERY small percentage of people who have jobs and "make money" are "productive" in a sense that improves the world and society.
A good first measurement is "if they disappeared, would things change for the better?".....
In that case, I'd put the homeless guy WAY above the copy machine sales guy. I'd put 50% or more of the day traders or wall street types lower than the pot dealer (as long as said dealer sells fair...
Some guy long ago....said "judge not".
IMHO, another measurement is whether or not the "productive" person works in A/C all the time. This may be excusable for a real pro (doctor, lawyer), but someone who uses vast quantities of energy to drive to and from work and then to stay cool and then to....try to sell stuff that 10,000 other people already sell (and you can do without or buy online, etc.).......that's not productive to me.
You are idealizing human beings. A huge portion of humanity is already unproductive and lazy. Removing the need for being employed would make them worse. There are large swaths of cities where unemployment is widespread and these areas aren't bustling with innovation. These areas tend to be dilapidated and unkempt. There are all these people who aren't even working now and they have plenty of free time to get things done, yet they don't. These areas are filled with drugs, crime, and social dysfunction. Only in a fantasy world would basic income male these people more productive.
Some aren't, the others are a drop in the bucket. And they leech off the system.
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