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> This is basically any libertarians pipe dream. Are you sure about this? I thought libertarians were against all institutions such as the state with power ov

> This is basically any libertarians pipe dream. Are you sure about this? I thought libertarians were against all institutions such as the state with power over people. UBI is a socialist policy. It seems in total contradiction with libertarian principles to me. How is that possible?

orbifold 7y ago
Well I am not a libertarian myself but as far as I understood people pushing for UBI are also pushing for a drastically smaller administration which is currently administering social benefits. This would be achieved by basically eliminating most other form of benefits, similar to how they propose to hand out vouchers for services like education instead of operating schools.
- feanaro 7y ago
  This is a drastic oversimplification. From my experience, libertarians are usually against UBI. There is certainly a large enough current that you can't make this generalization.
- x38iq84n 7y ago
  You have misunderstood libertarianism, just because it wants to see small to none state does not mean it would support UBI or other forms of socialism.
TimJRobinson 7y ago
Libertarians believe in the government staying out of your business and letting free markets do their thing. With UBI everyone gets an automatic safety net and the ideal is that if all markets were free of government intervention people would buy what they want, and competition would down the costs of healthcare / education / food etc. So that those with UBI can have the basic necessities of life, without the government needing to do anything (other than dealing with tragedy of the commons type problems.)
antisemiotic 7y ago
UBI is similar to negative income tax, which was proposed by (among others) Friedman.
- icebraining 7y ago
  That just shifts the question to whether Friedman was a libertarian. This is certainly not a consensual opinion in that camp.
  - antisemiotic 7y ago
    Point taken, but I was thinking more about the "it's a socialist policy" part, and he certainly wasn't a socialist.
icebraining 7y ago
I think libertarians mostly view UBI the same way leftists view things like laws enforcing collective bargaining. Some support it as an improvement of the status quo, others oppose it because it gets us no closer to their actual goal.

orbifold 7y ago

Well I am not a libertarian myself but as far as I understood people pushing for UBI are also pushing for a drastically smaller administration which is currently administering social benefits. This would be achieved by basically eliminating most other form of benefits, similar to how they propose to hand out vouchers for services like education instead of operating schools.

feanaro 7y ago
This is a drastic oversimplification. From my experience, libertarians are usually against UBI. There is certainly a large enough current that you can't make this generalization.
x38iq84n 7y ago
You have misunderstood libertarianism, just because it wants to see small to none state does not mean it would support UBI or other forms of socialism.

TimJRobinson 7y ago

Libertarians believe in the government staying out of your business and letting free markets do their thing. With UBI everyone gets an automatic safety net and the ideal is that if all markets were free of government intervention people would buy what they want, and competition would down the costs of healthcare / education / food etc. So that those with UBI can have the basic necessities of life, without the government needing to do anything (other than dealing with tragedy of the commons type problems.)

antisemiotic 7y ago

UBI is similar to negative income tax, which was proposed by (among others) Friedman.

icebraining 7y ago
That just shifts the question to whether Friedman was a libertarian. This is certainly not a consensual opinion in that camp.
- antisemiotic 7y ago
  Point taken, but I was thinking more about the "it's a socialist policy" part, and he certainly wasn't a socialist.

icebraining 7y ago

I think libertarians mostly view UBI the same way leftists view things like laws enforcing collective bargaining. Some support it as an improvement of the status quo, others oppose it because it gets us no closer to their actual goal.