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>Problem is, there isn't a lot of pressure on the political forces to implement any sort of basic income You mean a completely unproven system that most econom

>Problem is, there isn't a lot of pressure on the political forces to implement any sort of basic income You mean a completely unproven system that most economists believe cannot possibly be funded without increasing spending to unheard of levels and no you don't save enough by cutting the "inefficiencies of the current system" and has a good chance to quickly die due to inflation? Can we please stop bringing up UBI as a silver bullet to all problems in every automation article?

logfromblammo 10y ago
Especially since you can't solve supply-side problems by manipulating demand. Universal Basic Income cannot meet the minimum survival needs of the population as long as it does nothing more than transfer money. The vision most people have when thinking about UBI cannot be realized without some form of command economy separated from the profit-motivated consumer-goods pipeline. If all you do is give poor people cash, their landlords raise rents, their grocers raise prices, and their bus lines raise fares. Any UBI that I'd actually expect to work is nowhere near as simple as just cutting checks.
akiselev 10y ago
> You mean a completely unproven system that most economists believe cannot possibly be funded without increasing spending to unheard of levels and no you don't save enough by cutting the "inefficiencies of the current system" and has a good chance to quickly die due to inflation? I could have sworn I've heard that somewhere... oh wait, it's the same tired argument used against every progressive policy since the New Deal. You'll have to forgive UBI supporters for not taking economists seriously given their track record over the last century, during which the developed world increased spending to "unheard of" levels about a dozen times. The US income tax, which required a Constitutional amendment, is only 104 years old after all. > Can we please stop bringing up UBI as a silver bullet to all problems in every automation article? I don't see anyone seriously claiming that UBI is a silver bullet, just that it's the only bullet we have left against our future robotic overlords.

logfromblammo 10y ago

Especially since you can't solve supply-side problems by manipulating demand. Universal Basic Income cannot meet the minimum survival needs of the population as long as it does nothing more than transfer money. The vision most people have when thinking about UBI cannot be realized without some form of command economy separated from the profit-motivated consumer-goods pipeline. If all you do is give poor people cash, their landlords raise rents, their grocers raise prices, and their bus lines raise fares. Any UBI that I'd actually expect to work is nowhere near as simple as just cutting checks.

akiselev 10y ago

> You mean a completely unproven system that most economists believe cannot possibly be funded without increasing spending to unheard of levels and no you don't save enough by cutting the "inefficiencies of the current system" and has a good chance to quickly die due to inflation? I could have sworn I've heard that somewhere... oh wait, it's the same tired argument used against every progressive policy since the New Deal. You'll have to forgive UBI supporters for not taking economists seriously given their track record over the last century, during which the developed world increased spending to "unheard of" levels about a dozen times. The US income tax, which required a Constitutional amendment, is only 104 years old after all. > Can we please stop bringing up UBI as a silver bullet to all problems in every automation article? I don't see anyone seriously claiming that UBI is a silver bullet, just that it's the only bullet we have left against our future robotic overlords.