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> an awful lot like UBI. But, I think the key difference is that ... parents ... have a standard for how it's spent. There's another important difference from

by iguy 8y ago

> an awful lot like UBI. But, I think the key difference is that ... parents ... have a standard for how it's spent. There's another important difference from UBI, that only a few kids now get this $28k. So being one of them, you can out-bid the others on having a nice apartment... whose price would otherwise rise. This applies to work too: she could get ahead artistically by being able to write full time. Ahead of the competition, that is, who had to work. UBI wouldn't have given her that advantage.

rpearl 8y ago
that's a simplistic analysis that doesn't really capture the whole effect a universal basic income might have. For one, with a livable basic income, the value of housing shifts somewhat--since there's not essentially a requirement to have a job, the demand for housing-near-jobs changes. It is hard to predict exactly what direction that might shift in. The competitive environment around an artistic endeavor changes too--you have the ability to experiment and fail and not be forced out entirely, since you can fall back and change things up without having to worry about finding a job. And it might not be the case that everyone looking for a creative outlet is looking to make it into a living.
- iguy 8y ago
  Indeed, UBI is uncharted territory, so it's not obvious what would happen. I only meant that we should be very cautious about extrapolating. I'm not convinced that the changes in competition would be in the direction you mention. It could be that even more people would like to live in Vancouver, if only their jobs weren't keeping them elsewhere. It could also be that the artistic environment is more about competition for audience, and for status, than about creative outlet. As a datapoint, the world of the '80s had lots of small-time newspaper photographers, and commercial photographers, most serving a local market. The world of the '10s instead has instagram stars, and is in some sense much more competitive, much more unequal in terms of who gets their work seen.

by iguy 8y ago

rpearl 8y ago

that's a simplistic analysis that doesn't really capture the whole effect a universal basic income might have. For one, with a livable basic income, the value of housing shifts somewhat--since there's not essentially a requirement to have a job, the demand for housing-near-jobs changes. It is hard to predict exactly what direction that might shift in. The competitive environment around an artistic endeavor changes too--you have the ability to experiment and fail and not be forced out entirely, since you can fall back and change things up without having to worry about finding a job. And it might not be the case that everyone looking for a creative outlet is looking to make it into a living.

iguy 8y ago
Indeed, UBI is uncharted territory, so it's not obvious what would happen. I only meant that we should be very cautious about extrapolating. I'm not convinced that the changes in competition would be in the direction you mention. It could be that even more people would like to live in Vancouver, if only their jobs weren't keeping them elsewhere. It could also be that the artistic environment is more about competition for audience, and for status, than about creative outlet. As a datapoint, the world of the '80s had lots of small-time newspaper photographers, and commercial photographers, most serving a local market. The world of the '10s instead has instagram stars, and is in some sense much more competitive, much more unequal in terms of who gets their work seen.