OT: Food For Thought
Papi_Chulo
Miami, FL (or the nearest big-booty club)
Basic income could mean free cash for every US adult — here’s what experts say and real-world tests show
What do Elon Musk, Martin Luther King Jr., and presidential candidate Andrew Yang all have in common? Support for the idea of basic income, or UBI — a policy that would guarantee everyone a predetermined amount of money every month, no strings attached.
Although a policy that simply gives out money may seem far-fetched, some places have actually tried it out while others are trying it right now.
Here’s what you need to know about how basic income policies could function, and what real-world experiments have shown.
Basic income proposals take many different forms
Basic income is not a one-size-fits-all policy proposal. The core concept — giving residents or citizens cash — remains the same, but in practice, a basic income program could take many forms.
Some UBI proposals would replace all existing social programs (Social Security, food stamps, etc.) with a single cash transfer from the government to the citizens. Others would keep those programs in place while paying out money, effectively strengthening the social safety net.
Geographic and political boundaries vary, too. A single city or state could implement a UBI program, or only include certain members of the population, such as low-income households.
UBI could also include every adult in the country. That’s the idea behind “The Freedom Dividend,” a basic income proposal by 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang to give all American adults over the age of 18 an unconditional $1,000 per month to cover expenses.
Why proponents say the US needs a basic income
Though the concept of a basic income has been around for generations, it’s gained real momentum over the past several years. There are several reasons for that, but chief among them are fears related to economic uncertainty surrounding jobs lost to automation and increasing levels of wealth inequality.
The prospect of mass unemployment due to automation led Elon Musk to become a supporter of basic income. And Martin Luther King Jr.’s concern about growing inequality, even way back in the 1960s, caused him to lay out an argument for a guaranteed middle-class income for all Americans.
On top of strengthening the safety net, proponents tout the economic benefits of a UBI. If the government gives people money every month to help them with essential expenses like rent, groceries, and transportation, residents would then, in turn, have more disposable income to spend on everything else — thus creating demand and helping the economy.
By Yang’s team’s estimates, his proposed basic income plan would “permanently grow the economy by 12.56 to 13.10% — or about $2.5 trillion by 2025 — and it would increase the labor force by 4.5 to 4.7 million people.”
The biggest hang up, of course, is that the money has to come from somewhere. A program of that scope and scale would be massively expensive.
Objections to UBI: Cost and unintended consequences
For Yang’s proposal, some back-of-the-envelope math shows that paying every American adult, of which there are roughly 250 million, $12,000 per year would cost the government $3 trillion annually, or about three times the current U.S. defense budget.
“Where do you get all of that money?” asks Marco Annunziata, a former chief economist at General Electric who now works as a consultant and writes about economic policy, including basic income.
Annunziata says that, unless a massive tax increase is levied alongside any UBI program, the math doesn’t work. Instead, he says the United States should focus on creating new social programs and expanding existing ones to strengthen the safety net. “We should focus more on giving targeted assistance to people, workers who are losing their jobs, people who can’t make ends meet,” he says.
Cost isn’t the only concern. Critics say UBI programs could cause runaway inflation (assuming money is introduced into the economy, rather than transferred via taxation) and that it will disincentivize work (why get a job if you’re already getting paid?).
But other experts say that arguments, both for and against basic income, are overblown. “There is no reason to expect that people will systematically work less if there is a basic income,” says Maximilian Kasy, an associate professor of economics at Harvard University. But, he adds, “there is no reason to expect a significant boost in economic growth” from UBI, either.
How real-world basic income experiments have fared
There are and have been dozens of proposals and experiments in communities across the world that are probing the real-world viability of a basic income. Perhaps the best example of an existing basic income program is the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend, under which Alaskan residents receive an annual basic income funded by oil and gas production in the state. Its amount varies based on the number of eligible residents and revenues from the previous several years.
Alaska’s program has been around since the 1970s. In 2019, it will give 631,000 Alaskans more than $1,600 each. This serves, in the minds of some experts, as an example of how a larger basic income program could operate. “True UBI programs are larger versions of Alaska,” says Kent Smetters, a risk and insurance professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
The Alaskan system model was intended to return some of the wealth generated by the state’s natural resources to residents, and it works as designed.
There have been several pilot programs to see how the effects of a basic income would play in the real world, including:
Stockton, California: In 2018, Mayor Michael Tubbs implemented the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED), an 18-month project giving 125 residents $500 per month. The experiment will wrap up in the fall of 2020. The results are limited so far but the program appears to work as intended: Recipients are using the money to buy food and pay utility bills.
Ontario, Canada: More than 4,000 residents of Hamilton, Thunder Bay, and Lindsay, Ontario, participated in the Ontario Basic Income Pilot in 2018. Participants were given varying amounts (between $13,000 and $19,000 USD per year) depending on household and employment status. The program was canceled after only 10 months due to high costs, despite promising early results.
Helsinki, Finland: In Finland, a UBI experiment in early 2017 gave 2,000 unemployed people 560 Euros per month. The results found that recipients didn’t work more or earn more money than those in a control group.
There are other UBI experiments in progress, too, some run by governments and others by private organizations like Y Combinator, which is currently in the first year of a five-year basic income experiment. A spokesman for the group tells Grow that they will not be sharing the results of the program until more data is collected.
As for what we can learn from these programs: They’re expensive, as predicted, but many seem either promising or successful, like Alaska’s. That program works in part because it’s funded by oil revenues, though, and that may be the key. Experts say a nationwide UBI program would probably need to be funded by a massive tax increase, something that the public is unlikely to support unless it’s targeted only at the wealthy.
Key takeaways, and what all this could mean for you
Americans outside Alaska have seen similar programs and projects. For example, during the Great Recession, the government sent out stimulus checks as a part of a larger package of legislation in an effort to spur consumer spending — with mixed results.
The bottom line is there isn’t an easy or clear answer yet as to whether or not basic income programs work.
Regardless, the idea has caught on with a significant portion of the public. As many as 43% of Americans support a UBI program, according to a recent Gallup poll, with more support among younger and more highly educated groups. (Though that’s down from 2018, when Gallup found 48% supported the idea.) In Canada, 75% of the public supports the idea and, in the U.K., UBI has 77% support.
Even with a lot of public support, it’s hard to imagine a bill creating a federal basic income program making it to the president’s desk. Congress hasn’t been able to pass other, more popular proposals, such as raising the minimum wage.
Individual states and cities, though, could implement their own programs, just as Alaska has done. Other types of legislation, like cannabis legalization, that began on the local level have proven popular and effective enough to be adopted more broadly around the country.
https://grow.acorns.com/what-experts-thi…
What do Elon Musk, Martin Luther King Jr., and presidential candidate Andrew Yang all have in common? Support for the idea of basic income, or UBI — a policy that would guarantee everyone a predetermined amount of money every month, no strings attached.
Although a policy that simply gives out money may seem far-fetched, some places have actually tried it out while others are trying it right now.
Here’s what you need to know about how basic income policies could function, and what real-world experiments have shown.
Basic income proposals take many different forms
Basic income is not a one-size-fits-all policy proposal. The core concept — giving residents or citizens cash — remains the same, but in practice, a basic income program could take many forms.
Some UBI proposals would replace all existing social programs (Social Security, food stamps, etc.) with a single cash transfer from the government to the citizens. Others would keep those programs in place while paying out money, effectively strengthening the social safety net.
Geographic and political boundaries vary, too. A single city or state could implement a UBI program, or only include certain members of the population, such as low-income households.
UBI could also include every adult in the country. That’s the idea behind “The Freedom Dividend,” a basic income proposal by 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang to give all American adults over the age of 18 an unconditional $1,000 per month to cover expenses.
Why proponents say the US needs a basic income
Though the concept of a basic income has been around for generations, it’s gained real momentum over the past several years. There are several reasons for that, but chief among them are fears related to economic uncertainty surrounding jobs lost to automation and increasing levels of wealth inequality.
The prospect of mass unemployment due to automation led Elon Musk to become a supporter of basic income. And Martin Luther King Jr.’s concern about growing inequality, even way back in the 1960s, caused him to lay out an argument for a guaranteed middle-class income for all Americans.
On top of strengthening the safety net, proponents tout the economic benefits of a UBI. If the government gives people money every month to help them with essential expenses like rent, groceries, and transportation, residents would then, in turn, have more disposable income to spend on everything else — thus creating demand and helping the economy.
By Yang’s team’s estimates, his proposed basic income plan would “permanently grow the economy by 12.56 to 13.10% — or about $2.5 trillion by 2025 — and it would increase the labor force by 4.5 to 4.7 million people.”
The biggest hang up, of course, is that the money has to come from somewhere. A program of that scope and scale would be massively expensive.
Objections to UBI: Cost and unintended consequences
For Yang’s proposal, some back-of-the-envelope math shows that paying every American adult, of which there are roughly 250 million, $12,000 per year would cost the government $3 trillion annually, or about three times the current U.S. defense budget.
“Where do you get all of that money?” asks Marco Annunziata, a former chief economist at General Electric who now works as a consultant and writes about economic policy, including basic income.
Annunziata says that, unless a massive tax increase is levied alongside any UBI program, the math doesn’t work. Instead, he says the United States should focus on creating new social programs and expanding existing ones to strengthen the safety net. “We should focus more on giving targeted assistance to people, workers who are losing their jobs, people who can’t make ends meet,” he says.
Cost isn’t the only concern. Critics say UBI programs could cause runaway inflation (assuming money is introduced into the economy, rather than transferred via taxation) and that it will disincentivize work (why get a job if you’re already getting paid?).
But other experts say that arguments, both for and against basic income, are overblown. “There is no reason to expect that people will systematically work less if there is a basic income,” says Maximilian Kasy, an associate professor of economics at Harvard University. But, he adds, “there is no reason to expect a significant boost in economic growth” from UBI, either.
How real-world basic income experiments have fared
There are and have been dozens of proposals and experiments in communities across the world that are probing the real-world viability of a basic income. Perhaps the best example of an existing basic income program is the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend, under which Alaskan residents receive an annual basic income funded by oil and gas production in the state. Its amount varies based on the number of eligible residents and revenues from the previous several years.
Alaska’s program has been around since the 1970s. In 2019, it will give 631,000 Alaskans more than $1,600 each. This serves, in the minds of some experts, as an example of how a larger basic income program could operate. “True UBI programs are larger versions of Alaska,” says Kent Smetters, a risk and insurance professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
The Alaskan system model was intended to return some of the wealth generated by the state’s natural resources to residents, and it works as designed.
There have been several pilot programs to see how the effects of a basic income would play in the real world, including:
Stockton, California: In 2018, Mayor Michael Tubbs implemented the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED), an 18-month project giving 125 residents $500 per month. The experiment will wrap up in the fall of 2020. The results are limited so far but the program appears to work as intended: Recipients are using the money to buy food and pay utility bills.
Ontario, Canada: More than 4,000 residents of Hamilton, Thunder Bay, and Lindsay, Ontario, participated in the Ontario Basic Income Pilot in 2018. Participants were given varying amounts (between $13,000 and $19,000 USD per year) depending on household and employment status. The program was canceled after only 10 months due to high costs, despite promising early results.
Helsinki, Finland: In Finland, a UBI experiment in early 2017 gave 2,000 unemployed people 560 Euros per month. The results found that recipients didn’t work more or earn more money than those in a control group.
There are other UBI experiments in progress, too, some run by governments and others by private organizations like Y Combinator, which is currently in the first year of a five-year basic income experiment. A spokesman for the group tells Grow that they will not be sharing the results of the program until more data is collected.
As for what we can learn from these programs: They’re expensive, as predicted, but many seem either promising or successful, like Alaska’s. That program works in part because it’s funded by oil revenues, though, and that may be the key. Experts say a nationwide UBI program would probably need to be funded by a massive tax increase, something that the public is unlikely to support unless it’s targeted only at the wealthy.
Key takeaways, and what all this could mean for you
Americans outside Alaska have seen similar programs and projects. For example, during the Great Recession, the government sent out stimulus checks as a part of a larger package of legislation in an effort to spur consumer spending — with mixed results.
The bottom line is there isn’t an easy or clear answer yet as to whether or not basic income programs work.
Regardless, the idea has caught on with a significant portion of the public. As many as 43% of Americans support a UBI program, according to a recent Gallup poll, with more support among younger and more highly educated groups. (Though that’s down from 2018, when Gallup found 48% supported the idea.) In Canada, 75% of the public supports the idea and, in the U.K., UBI has 77% support.
Even with a lot of public support, it’s hard to imagine a bill creating a federal basic income program making it to the president’s desk. Congress hasn’t been able to pass other, more popular proposals, such as raising the minimum wage.
Individual states and cities, though, could implement their own programs, just as Alaska has done. Other types of legislation, like cannabis legalization, that began on the local level have proven popular and effective enough to be adopted more broadly around the country.
https://grow.acorns.com/what-experts-thi…
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56 comments
The idea of UBI is to eliminate needs testing. So you do what to use it to replace as many needs tested and other programs as possible.
With Social Security you could give people the larger of their UBI or their Social Security check.
In my view the largest demand increase you will see is at the bottom end of the housing market.
So, speaking for my own view, to make UBI work we need three other things:
1. Strong public housing offering, say fixed at 1/2 the UBI rate. So no rent control.
2. Medicare for all
3. Free college.
Have these and we have a material utopia.
This is the benefit of advanced industrial technology.
Like Bucky Fuller said, we now have the ability to take care of every person better than even royalty use to live in past centuries. The only reason we don't see this is that we expect every person to prove that they can earn a living.
SJG
Like Buckminster Fuller said, we have the ability to take care of everyone even better than royalty had lived in past centuries. The reason we do not see this is that we still demand that everyone prove that they can earn a living.
And besides, with UBI, more people will be able to have paying employment and to run profitable businesses than with things as they are today. There will be more money in circulation.
More money circulating, but a little less to inflate the stock and real estate markets.
SJG
So while the Work Ethic never did make much sense, today it makes no sense at all.
SJG
Progressive income tax and wealth tax puts money in circulation.
UBI is the way to take care of everyone, though it might take a purge of the people like Skibum to get there.
Money being accumulated is the root of all economic problems. If we did not have people doing this, things would be much better. Supply Side Economics has always been a fraud.
UBI +Strong Public Housing Fixed At 1/2 of UBI Rate +Medicare For All +Free College
I suggest that people start drilling and training with assault rifles in order to make this happen.
SJG
Pleaser 6", no platform, nice strapping and enclosed heel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YSQFT9j…
Blues Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nd9GtfF…
SJG
Pleaser Adore-708G Gold Glitter Flilled 7 Inch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QGZJjmC…
Could easily see $1,000 rent bump up 2 $2,000 for the same Square feet
Unless the government stepped in
I think if AI takes over we are just forced into a Communist situation
So housing prices should be okay.
With most other things, I don't think the demand will be that much greater. UBI Is not that much money. And then for people with lots of money on top of their UBI, there would be higher taxes. This really helps from the bottom up till about the 75th percentile.
So UBI +public housing +medicare for all +free college.
You need higher taxes because while the poor will spend their UBI, the rich will use it to further inflate the stock and real estate markets. So to get it back from them so that it can recirculate, there have to be some upper income and asset tax hikes.
Most of today's economic woes are directly traceable to Reagan gutting our progressive taxation.
UBI is simply the fruit of an advanced industrial and information technology.
Supply Side Economics has always been a fraud, just a Ponzi Scheme built between the workers and the Surplus Value, completely exploitative. So the sooner it collapses the better.
SJG
Pleaser FLAMINGO-822T Blue Faux Leather Purple Blue Ombre 8 Inch
Ladies, is this kind of strapping better, safer? Okay to go to 9 inch and 10 inch, okay to go even higher? Enclosed heel designs better still? Anybody besides Pleaser make something comparable?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Aq1NVrr…
Or maybe they will produce art or poetry. Or maybe they will consume products and help our economy. Welfare fraud still exists without UBI; UBI isn't purposely trying to eliminate it.
"Wow you mean human beings actually support getting something for doing absolutely nothing?"
Uh, living?
"A tax on wealth makes the wealth disappear eventually"
No, the money will trickle back up to the wealthy.
"why wouldn't business just price gouge everything especially since they all know we all have an extra $12,000"
Because they'll lose business to other companies who price their goods aggressively.
The good thing about UBI is that you can start small and still see results. Give citizens $50 a month with a modest tax increase on the wealthy to pay for it. Evaluate it after 4 years and then increase it bit by bit.
Maximilian Kasy is a moron who clearly needs to trade his Economics degree in because he is clueless about basic human behavior. Of course some people would work less, especially when you couple this with free Medicaid and state assistance plans already available to those who decide not to work.
===> "By Yang’s team’s estimates, his proposed basic income plan would “permanently grow the economy by 12.56 to 13.10% — or about $2.5 trillion by 2025 — and it would increase the labor force by 4.5 to 4.7 million people.”"
Yang's team may be even dumber than Kasy. This will crater the economy. If decreases in productivity don't do it, especially once taxes get jacked up on more productive citizens, then inflation will when the U.S. government has to print money to accomplish this.
Getting people to "work" less is how we reduce environmental impact. Right now, people are "working" to increase the largess of financializers. That is an absurdity.
There will though be an expansion of the economy as money gets plowed into things like public housing, public transit, and alternative energy. That creates jobs, good jobs, not amazon.com and Walmarts. And just downwards distribution, as Keynes showed, expands the size of the economy.
UBI will expand the size of the federal budget several fold. I feel that Andrew Yang's numbers are underestimates.
When you give poor people money, they spend it. It recirculates. It keeps on recirculating until one of two things happen, either it gets eaten up by taxes, or it gets into the hands of rich people. Rich people don't spend it, they use it to further inflate the stock and real estate markets, and this is a blight.
And then rich people usually have figured out ways of installing themselves into our economy, so that just like in a Monopoly game, money reverts to them.
And then on top of that, with UBI half of the money is going to people under the median income. But the other half of the money is going to people above the median income.
So you have to raise taxes, just to get money back from rich people.
The US has more the tax rates of a third world capitalist development state, than of an Advanced Industrial Democracy. High progressive taxation is what keeps the wheels of progress turning and stops the rich people from using social advantages to snatch up all of the money and have us divide into the very rich and the very poor.
The "work ethic" always was stupid and self-contradictory. Today it is absurd. All it does is support this class of financilizers, and they are total parasites.
The annual payout for UBI will be huge. But the idea is to replace as many needs tested programs as possible. Then most of the money will come from re-circulation. And then beyond that it comes from tax hikes. Probably have to go back to the pre-Reagan Supply Side Cuts, to 70% for top bracket. That had worked very well.
What causes financialization and these booms and busts is simply Reagan having gutted our progressive taxation.
Wealth taxation is attractive too because it can be even more progressive than income tax.
We have had huge unemployment levels for over 100 years. We just hide this by defining unemployment in such a way that it includes only a small portion of the jobless. And then we have a policy of denigration which marginalizes people who are without money.
UBI ends the marginalization, and so our politics will change completely.
So I am also calling for a Social Democracy Anti-Denigration Force, of people who are trained in how to Kill Using Martial Arts, in how to Kill With Knives, and in how to Kill With Fire Arms.
And I can take responsibility for dealing with those who think that they can extract money from our economy, but that they are morally above taxes. I'll send their heads back by the basket full.
It is like Buckminster Fuller said, we have the ability to take care of every single person better than even royalty had lived in past centuries. The only reason we do not now see this is because we demand that everybody prove that they can earn a living.
SJG
Moco de Gorila
https://www.target.com/p/moco-de-gorila-…
Deep Purple-Child in Time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfAWReBm…
It needs to be UBI +strong public housing offering fixed at 1/2 the UBI payment level. So no rent control, just this public housing offering. Towers on the rail public transit, what they call "urban villages". As space becomes available anyone can live in them. All services on bottom floors. Intended though to promote car free living. Built on an ongoing basis. Eventually should be able to profit.
Then also +Medicare For All and +Free College.
I don't think there will really be much inflation. The main demand increase would have been just at the entry level of the housing market.
Bottom line though, how much money the government has is largely an artificial construction. It holds all the levers, so it can do what it wants.
The more money which is given to poor people, the more you have recirculating.
Thomas Paine called this Citizenship Pay. But he was not envisioning nation states like Kuwait, where only some of the people are citizens.
So I would say that it goes to anyone who is lawfully residing here. So the same people who run this system are also deciding who is a lawful resident.
SJG
The idea of minimum wage is that working full time gives you enough to live off of. If the job is dumbed down, that is the employer's fault. But that does not mean that they can pay people less than a living wage.
SJG
The reason we have a minimum wage law is so that there will be a minimum, and the idea is that that will be a living wage.
No, creating a second tier of labor, for people who can afford to work for less than what they can live on is not a good idea.
Min wage is intended to be living wage. Employers do not have to like this, but it is the law.
EVERYBODY IS ENTITLED TO A LIVING!
Everyone has always known that the minimum wage law makes some jobs go away. The government is supposed to have other policies to deal with this. These are not new ideas, they go back to the New Deal.
You 25 are trying to advance Supply Side / Red State arguments. Bullshit!
SJG
Burger joints hire adults. Have you ever gone to McDonald's during a school day and seen teenagers work there?
But you go back, but don't try and spread non-sense throughout this country.
SJG
Jobs people cannot live on is bullshit.
Barbara Ehrenreich calls those who work for wages they could not live on, Anonymous Donors.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031262…
SJG
And remember, immigrants are not just workers, they are also consumers.
Most of the time immigrants are doing the jobs no one else wants. Immigrants lower our average age, and so you have more people paying taxes in for things like Social Security or UBI.
We have had very high unemployment for over 100 years. We just hide it, keep it out of the official reporting, and then use language which denigrates the poor.
SJG
SJG
What is quite flawed are the Red State or Supply Side Arguments.
This started with Reagan, changing our economy so that it works more like a third world country. And today, people like Trump and his ilk arguing for more of the same.
SJG
The motive of Reagan and his people, as they themselves have written, was to break the US Government so that it could no longer pay for social programs.
The overall reason for this is to create world wide fascism. A core component of this is in forcing societies to go to two tiers.
This is what the Supply Side logic guarantees.
https://www.amazon.com/America-Wrong-Don…
SJG
But so often, and worsened because of Reagan, this is not true.
Chris Hedges - America the Land of the Desperate and Doomed - Dec 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8JSIp14…
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/150115…
SJG
This is total insanity!
UBI changes this, workers seek pay and recognition, and the fruits of their labor serves the needs of our people.
The speculator class will still be there, just taken down a couple of pegs.
SJG
Pleaser Beyond-4000 Massive 10 Inch Thigh High Boots (she seems to walk carefully )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL8tfbXb…
1. Wild high inflation from 1970's, OPEC, bank interest could not keep up. Undermines common ethic of saving money.
2. Money Market funds to get high interest.
3. Inflation stopped but people wanted high return rates, so the Stock Market and Mutual Funds.
4. IRA and 401k created to politically undermine Social Security politically. Then wild rumors of Social Security going away.
5. So a retirement industry was born, turning irrational stock market speculation into responsible and prudent activity, and dividing society into two tiers.
6. So the norm became financial speculations. And now this is what drives our economy and our politics. This is what workers and the Work Ethic serve. And this is completely insane.
And UBI does change it.
SJG
Pleaser, completely transforming the landscape of sexual desire. But have they been sued, for orthopedic injuries, injuries, and death?
Hot Pink Pleaser 5 Inch Single Sole Thigh High Boots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9NKhp5K…
Does Pleaser have any competition?
https://tuscl.net/discussion.php?id=6399…
If these speculators did not have the federal gov't making stock market bubbles into official policy, and if they didn't have the poor and the marginalized to work in these McDonald's and Walmart stores, then they would have to work in these places themselves.
SJG
SJG
I need a break, says globetrotting Greta
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/i-ne…
https://www.amazon.com/Into-Wild-Jon-Kra…
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758758/?re…
The issue is to change from using industrial technology the way that Mussolini and Hitler did, dividing humanity into Masters and Slaves, to using it in a way which takes care of everyone.
So UBI is a Universal Basic Income. It will deal people in to the extent that they can pay for basic needs.
So speaking for myself, I think Andy Yang is underestimating. Should be more like $2k per month, not $1k. And total cost more like about $8 Trillion, not his $3.2. But much money comes from cancelling other programs, then it comes from re circulation and high income tax hikes.
There will be a strong public housing offering, fixed at the rate of 1/2 UBI.
So there will not be rent control, but there still should not be housing inflation or any other kind of inflation.
As I see it, the public housing, for whom ever wants to live there, will promote car free living.
So we take care of food, transportation, medical and education. But we don't provide private jets or yachts.
It redirects the fruits of our economy to some who otherwise would have not. And so that these people are no longer the scapegoats of our entire society, the benefit is made universal. Thomas Paine wanted this, and so too did Milton Freeman and colleagues.
The exact details would still have to be debated.
As I see it, Universal Basic Income, meaning enough to live off of. Medicare for all, Free College, Public Housing for whom ever wants it at 1/2 UBI.
Say you can get the larger of your UBI or your Social Security benefit, but not both.
Replaces Social Security and Unemployment Benefits and much more.
Promotes car free living and is on the rail public transit lines. All services on lower floors of towers.
Building and running the public housing would be great jobs.
The benefit has a targeted purpose, it is not just an open ended money payout.
SJG
_____________________
I didn't read much of this thread and maybe I'm re-stating what someone else said.
The UBI plan by Yang sounds like a horrible idea. For one thing, the threat of automation is still way, way, in the future and greatly exaggerated. But the most important thing is that only the bottom 20% or so really need the money. Giving everyone (rich and poor) the same amount is a terrible and expensive idea.
What *should* be done for the poor? There's still about 15 red states that refuse to give federal Medicaid expansion to their population even though they don't have to pay for it. Nothing more than a snub at Obamacare and it means a lot of poor people live without any health insurance.
The money still recirculates, UBI helps people quite a ways up the socio-economic ladder. It makes for an expanded economy.
So no money is lost, it either recirculates, or it gets wasted on inflating the stock and real estate markets. And in this later case, it gets snatched back by via higher taxes.
As it is now, our politics and our social culture revolve around scapegoating the poor.
If you have to start UBI with only some portion of the population, then do it by age. And same for space in the public housing. Start with min age 65, then drop that by 5 years each year. But don't ever destroy UBI by making a means test.
Reusing to give federal Medicaid expansion? Well back in the 60's Mississippi was refusing to give out the Federal Food Stamps money. Along with South Carolina, Mississippi had the highest percentages of blacks. And then with the '65 Voting Rights Act they knew that they were not going to be able to control the voting for much longer.
So what was the solution? Starve blacks out of the state.
There was much employment loss as the South was moving away from their share cropping system to mechanized agriculture and a wage system.
So Blacks were being squeezed out. So in 1967 Bobby Kennedy went on a tour of that area they call the Mississippi Delta. I think it is really should more properly called a back delta, its that Clarksdale and Cleveland area.
And this is when Peter Edelman and Marian Wright first met each other. Video's show Bobby Kennedy meeting people and asking how they are fixed for food, and if he can look in their refrigerator.
They saw diseases caused by malnutrition which were thought not to exist in the developed world.
So after, Bobby got legislation passed so that when states refuse to distribute food stamps money that it could also be taken on by secular NGO's.
SJG
At least 90% of paid employment produces nothing people need to live aboard Spaceship Earth. It is not life support, it is status symbol kitsch.
At least 60% of paid employment produces nothing of any social value whatever. It just consumes resources.
And even with this, large numbers of people are cut out, and larger numbers are just unemployed and underemployed.
Supply Side Economics has always been a scam.
SJG
Either we use taxpayer money to help the poor or we don’t. Just imo
SJG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHQJeCeQ…
Well UBI should replace many programs, but it would still cost much more than what it replaces.
Overall though it lets our society run smoother, it provides an economic floor, lets us stop doing stupid stuff just to create jobs, jobs which we do not need.
SJG
SJG
SJG
Today most paid employment produces nothing of any social value, yet politicians are climbing over each other promising how they will create more of it.
The Work Ethic is the main ideological problem we are saddled with.
And Wealth is not money or the stock market, it is life support, the things we all need to live aboard Space Ship Earth.
Thanks,
SJG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFGf8iYL…
SJG
102 over 56, resting pulse 60.
Bernie Sanders' Medical Records Revealed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH44Ry2R…
Are All Electric Cars the Future? Or Not? (w/ David Reichmuth)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI6lK_pJ…
Donald Trump Once a Bully Always a Bully
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNbH6-0y…
Meet The Democrat Challenging Lindsey Graham
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je457JOB…
Trump Does Not Believe in America (w/ Dr. Justin A. Frank)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEYYGmWn…
https://tuscl.net/photo.php?id=3942
Everything You Need to Know: Trump’s Tremendous Road Since Impeachment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aimo4Gib…
Exclusive: Rachel Maddow Interviews Lev Parnas - Part 1 | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVnZVuhO…
Chris Cuomo argues Donald Trump isn't normalizing corruption; the GOP is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQLVi7lU…
"Michael Bloomberg was the Pinata in Nevada" - pretty entertaining to watch!
https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2020/…
The Republicans would do better if they could just get Trump to resign, so they can still pick someone else.
Bernie Sanders says that our country has 1/2 million people sleeping out on the street.
Satin Doll Oscar Peterson 1963 (instrumental)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YidAJ4VL…
Jimmy Smith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDJ6d5dv…
Patti Austin (vocal)
https://youtu.be/4JwMgEyRv-8?t=35m21s
Curtis Mayfield, Superfly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8Rm7IO4…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zFS8DpZ…
PBS News, Today March 12th, in Italy death toll tops 1000.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gS8uwiv…
WATCH LIVE: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks to reporters amid coronavirus concerns, 21 minutes, 7 hours ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6nOT0zi…
WATCH LIVE: Ken Cuccinelli, others to testify before House Homeland Security committee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq_8r9Q6…
WATCH LIVE: Joe Biden speaks about the coronavirus pandemic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4IsDlLi…
Biden is better than Trump, but Sanders was better than both of them.
Today, 2hrs ago, WATCH LIVE: Sanders makes statement about coronavirus and the economy, "scale of a major war", could exceed armed forces casualties from WWII
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHwn0suW…
^^^^^ What Bernie is saying makes a great deal of sense!
NBC Nightly News, March 11th, starting with corona
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziL_TgQW…
Boosting Your Immune System Against Coronavirus | NBC News, for 80% corona is very mild, less than the flu?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSVqpWko…
They say corona came from bats, probably jumping the species barrier when butchering them.
Experts Hope Herd Immunity ‘Flattens’ The Coronavirus Curve | NBC News (makes perfect sense to me!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2aDEPZb…
Dow Drops More Than 2,300 Points Amid Coronavirus Pandemic | NBC News 15 min ago, DOW ~= 21,200. Better if it can go lower. Preposterous idea that lack of consumption has caused this drop. And underlying economy is horrible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qMvksCC…
Coronavirus: The next three months | THE BIG STORY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3w8gu9S…
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/seattle-s…
John's Hopkins U experts brief Capitol Hill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnk8DuAl…
Ontario, baby boy case
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJNGrYvS…
Coronavirus: Trump suspends travel from Europe to US - BBC News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xNfz5LT…
Stocks Plunge Following Trump’s Response To Coronavirus Pandemic | NBC News (stock market deflation is a very positive thing) (getting close to tripping 7% circuit breaker, suspending trading)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcyVyjja…
President Trump Announces Europe Travel Ban in Error-Laden Oval Office Speech
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/12/h…
Bernie Sanders: We Are Winning “Ideological” & “Generational” Debate, Now Need to Win “Electability”
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/12/b…
Is Over Population A Threat To The Planet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeLAZYhL…
Bill de Blasio, today, getting close to 100 NYC cases, expecting 1000 cases by next week. Conducting "War Gaming", always using a war analogy now!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dukXZeKQ…
Why Only Rebellion Can Save Mankind From Climate Breakdown (w/ Roger Hallam)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSoI5489…
Trump Calls COVID-19 “Foreign Virus” as Lack of Universal Healthcare Makes the Pandemic Worse
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/12/c…
Lack of Paid Sick Leave Makes It Difficult for Many Workers to Comply with CDC Advice to Stay Home
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/12/c…
Coronavirus Poses Higher Risk For Homeless Population
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRwRDeiW…
One official Corona case in Portland
Could COVID-19 Remove Trump From Office?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QleGL1bp…
SJG
Devadip Carlos Santana & Turiya Alice Coltrane - Illuminations (1974 - Album)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da3zbut6…
10", strapped on, 5 colors
https://pleasershoes.com/collections/ple…
TJ Street
https://tuscl.net/photo.php?id=1132
https://tuscl.net/photo.php?id=2305
https://tuscl.net/photo.php?id=3560
https://tuscl.net/photos/5d699507cd73c
https://tuscl.net/photo.php?id=1061