4 ms·

But that doesn't really matter, because in terms of politcal capital, UBI is never, ever going to happen.

• wolf550e 10y ago
  Imagine our technology got so good that housing, clothing and feeding most of the population is affordable without raising taxes, as in Star Trek.
  • Coding_Cat 10y ago
    Or you know, real life. It's just a matter of priorities (and game theory).
  • themartorana 10y ago
    It will. My theory is that it comes from solar energy. As soon as electricity generation comes to a near-zero cost, and a huge part of manufacturing cost is energy, (and the other largest cost, humans, is also displaced) we start to rapidly move to a place where traditional economies as we know them start to crumble, and we are forced (perhaps kicking and screaming) to accept that we simply can't have Full Employment (maybe not even half). After that providing people with basic rights that include housing, healthcare, etc., becomes low-cost enough that not doing so is much more detrimental.
  • hackuser 10y ago
    > Imagine our technology got so good that housing, clothing and feeding most of the population is affordable without raising taxes Why do we have to do it without raising taxes? What's wrong with paying taxes? (A shocking thing to say these days, I know!) The U.S. could now house, feed, cloth, educate, and provide healthcare to its entire population. Is that a worthy goal? U.S. citizens pooled their money to put a person on the moon; they do it for medical research, aircraft carriers, rural telecommunication, and plenty of education and healthcare already. Why not this? (In fairness, I say the U.S. could do it. I have no data or research, but the U.S. is pretty close to doing it, it's the wealthiest country in the history of the world, other countries do it - I'm confident it's doable.)