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Where does the money currently come from? Currently, it's paid to companies by consumers, which pay workers, which in turn, consume things. So an alternate pat

Where does the money currently come from? Currently, it's paid to companies by consumers, which pay workers, which in turn, consume things. So an alternate path would be money is paid to companies by consumers, which are taxed, the tax money is redistributed to consumers again. It seems a bit circular, but so does the first one.

visarga 7y ago
Money were once tied to gold, then became fiat. Most of society gets access to money by employment. Work for wage is a great equaliser, because the ability to work is distributed in the population. Now the equilibrium is under threat because automated work is not distributing money as much into society. I think money could be tied directly to people if we quantify human needs. Then fulfilling these needs of the population would be the source of money. The more needs a company fulfils - food, energy, housing, communication, health, child care, transportation, education, recreation, science, arts, sports, the more it earns. If it's not benefitting people, then it is should be worth nothing. Let them compete in serving the population, instead of us competing for jobs. Keep those incentives aligned with our real goal - to exist. We don't exist for money, money exist for us. If we redefine money to represent 'fulfilled human needs', we fix the goal alignment and the equal distribution problems.
- gremlinsinc 7y ago
  What if we decided all resources and land were co-owned by Americans. If it is the ground or comes out of the ground. Land/oil specifically and minerals. Mining companies would still make bulk profit but there'd be taxes that are paid out in UBI. All land for skyscrapers, office buildings, etc -- all land would be taxed at a specific value, and that would also go into UBI. Then we could also have a VAT instead of income taxes so all Americans are also tax payers but UBI puts everyone above poverty so no biggie if we all pay tax on our purchases.

visarga 7y ago

Money were once tied to gold, then became fiat. Most of society gets access to money by employment. Work for wage is a great equaliser, because the ability to work is distributed in the population. Now the equilibrium is under threat because automated work is not distributing money as much into society. I think money could be tied directly to people if we quantify human needs. Then fulfilling these needs of the population would be the source of money. The more needs a company fulfils - food, energy, housing, communication, health, child care, transportation, education, recreation, science, arts, sports, the more it earns. If it's not benefitting people, then it is should be worth nothing. Let them compete in serving the population, instead of us competing for jobs. Keep those incentives aligned with our real goal - to exist. We don't exist for money, money exist for us. If we redefine money to represent 'fulfilled human needs', we fix the goal alignment and the equal distribution problems.

gremlinsinc 7y ago
What if we decided all resources and land were co-owned by Americans. If it is the ground or comes out of the ground. Land/oil specifically and minerals. Mining companies would still make bulk profit but there'd be taxes that are paid out in UBI. All land for skyscrapers, office buildings, etc -- all land would be taxed at a specific value, and that would also go into UBI. Then we could also have a VAT instead of income taxes so all Americans are also tax payers but UBI puts everyone above poverty so no biggie if we all pay tax on our purchases.