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It blows my mind that the allegedly smart SV elite think Guaranteed Basic Income will solve more problems than it creates. But maybe there much smarter than I,

It blows my mind that the allegedly smart SV elite think Guaranteed Basic Income will solve more problems than it creates. But maybe there much smarter than I, and they secretly want to create these problems so they can capitalize on them. Or maybe, they want to sap the proletariat of their drive so that the elite can remain the elite forever.

gist 9y ago
What is it? It's a bit of guilt, a bit of idealism and a bit of intellectual masturbation (for lack of a better way to put it). The fact is only someone who has their own needs taken care of at least monetarily (yc and/or the researchers on this project with secure jobs) can have the type of personality that will want to entertain themselves with this type of a project. Meanwhile, as they used to say back in my day growing up, 'children are starving in Africa so eat your food'. That was a reference to the fact that there were real problems in the world that needed to be solved today. Or in our own country right now. In other words they are spending time and money or something hypothetical (no jobs) instead of doing something today to help people that need help right now. Today. Not in 10 or 70 years. That's because they can't deal hypothetically and have success with today (or actually don't want to get their hands dirty) so they need to pick something in the future to occupy their available time and spend some of their money and get rid of guilt. In the end the 'guilt' refers to making then feel better about themselves for their extreme luck.
x2f10 9y ago
I wonder the same. My tin-foil theory: The poor are no longer able to purchase consumer goods as their entire income goes to their basic needs. With the middle class being pushed to the poor class, this will have devastating consequences for our consumerist-based economy. Thus, BI is nothing more than recession prevention. Of course, that's probably not the case.
rconti 9y ago
Or maybe they want to do a study to figure out how it all pans out, rather than making wild claims with nothing to back them up.

gist 9y ago

What is it? It's a bit of guilt, a bit of idealism and a bit of intellectual masturbation (for lack of a better way to put it). The fact is only someone who has their own needs taken care of at least monetarily (yc and/or the researchers on this project with secure jobs) can have the type of personality that will want to entertain themselves with this type of a project. Meanwhile, as they used to say back in my day growing up, 'children are starving in Africa so eat your food'. That was a reference to the fact that there were real problems in the world that needed to be solved today. Or in our own country right now. In other words they are spending time and money or something hypothetical (no jobs) instead of doing something today to help people that need help right now. Today. Not in 10 or 70 years. That's because they can't deal hypothetically and have success with today (or actually don't want to get their hands dirty) so they need to pick something in the future to occupy their available time and spend some of their money and get rid of guilt. In the end the 'guilt' refers to making then feel better about themselves for their extreme luck.

x2f10 9y ago

I wonder the same. My tin-foil theory: The poor are no longer able to purchase consumer goods as their entire income goes to their basic needs. With the middle class being pushed to the poor class, this will have devastating consequences for our consumerist-based economy. Thus, BI is nothing more than recession prevention. Of course, that's probably not the case.

rconti 9y ago

Or maybe they want to do a study to figure out how it all pans out, rather than making wild claims with nothing to back them up.