2 ms·
I'm a huge fan of the concept of a universal basic income, but I don't see how it can be a replacement for social programs for basic necessities like food stamp
by lewisl9029 10y ago
I'm a huge fan of the concept of a universal basic income, but I don't see how it can be a replacement for social programs for basic necessities like food stamps.
There will always be people out there who will choose to blow their entire paycheck on frivolous purchases outside of their means and not have any money left over at the end of the month for food. As stupid and irresponsible they are for making that choice, a humane, post-scarcity society shouldn't just let those people just starve to death on the streets as a consequence.
As a much more charitable example, consider the case of someone getting into an accident and ending up having to spend all or most of their basic income on medical expenses. How could someone like this survive if the basic income were to completely replace all existing social programs?
So basic income will have to coexist with these existing programs. Perhaps the existing programs can be reduced in scale due to less people needing to rely on them thanks to the introduction of a basic income, but probably not nearly enough to completely offset the immense costs of the basic income program itself.
This means the overall expenditure for social programs will likely have to increase due to the introduction of a universal basic income, and I personally am perfectly fine with increasing tax rates on the rich to make that happen, but it's not going to be easy.