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>because so many people find paid idleness a desirable lifestyle. You're close, and it's an easy mistake to make since it seems intuitive. However, the reality
by mbrameld 9y ago
>because so many people find paid idleness a desirable lifestyle.
You're close, and it's an easy mistake to make since it seems intuitive. However, the reality is that people find THE IDEA of paid idleness desirable. Small N, but everyone I know who has found themselves in that position has only remained idle for a very short time. Productivity quickly returns, although not in the form of trading time for money.
- Tactic 9y agoI believe you but that is anecdotal. I know people that not only want to remain idle if their basic needs are taken care of but currently do, and have been doing it for decades. Like most human traits, there is a wide degree of variance. As such there is no doubt in my mind UBI would allow a greater number of idlers because it would be more easily available. Just as it would allow more people to trade a job they don't like for a constructive activity they do.
- ctdonath 9y agoWhile I actively help the poor, it frequently appalls me how many of them choose to live that way. Basic needs met, a significant percentage find no reason to do more than watch TV, eat, and reproduce. Hence my comment elsewhere on this thread lamenting that Y Combinator, having focused on financially assisting the hyper-productive, have lost comprehension of how much of society is populated by those that only produce because they have to for survival; supply basic survival, and they do nothing. (I'm not saying that about all poor, but the fraction thereof who are is significant.)