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This may be poe's law at work, but it's pretty disingenuous to have the conversation in this fashion. Of _course_ it would be better to raise taxes and have a u

by pfooti 6y ago

This may be poe's law at work, but it's pretty disingenuous to have the conversation in this fashion. Of _course_ it would be better to raise taxes and have a universal basic income and free healthcare. That's because the ultimate problem here isn't taxes or taxis or lyft or uber, it's capitalism. However, given the system under analysis, because corporations have a history of making it very difficult for labor to be paid a fair and living wage, it falls to the government to use the tools at its disposal to ensure (as much as possible) that employees are paid fairly and have an opportunity to spend that pay on health insurance, because corporations won't be volunteering to do that, especially if they're already burning in excess of a billion dollars a year.

stjohnswarts 6y ago
Healthcare I agree with, universal basic income I don't agree with. Healthcare should be a human right but giving everyone $X a month doesn't make much sense as it doesn't promote self reliance. I have no problem helping those who can't help themselves but healthy adults really should take on some responsibility.
- piva00 6y ago
  And why do you believe that it's important to force self-reliance onto a society that is already ultraproductive by any comparison through history? Why does it have to be punitive instead of inspirational to be self-reliant? Because it sounds very unnatural for a social animal such as us humans to try to be completely self-reliant... We depend on others, we always have been and we probably always will, so leverage that instead of striving for some weird artificial sense of independence.
  - doonesbury 6y ago
    The American system is equal opportunity not equal outcomes. The latter is the euro model. Both parts of the world often underperform the stated value/goal and we American's have some work to do here. Without throwing capitalism out it would not kill to restore the pendulum back to the middle. US corporations under the rubric of maximizing shareholder value + DC support for tax accounting + liberal accommodation for globalism has given the powerful too much of a structural bias. And def not talking solutions ala Trump here. In this way universal or basic income is a no go here.

by pfooti 6y ago

stjohnswarts 6y ago

Healthcare I agree with, universal basic income I don't agree with. Healthcare should be a human right but giving everyone $X a month doesn't make much sense as it doesn't promote self reliance. I have no problem helping those who can't help themselves but healthy adults really should take on some responsibility.

piva00 6y ago
And why do you believe that it's important to force self-reliance onto a society that is already ultraproductive by any comparison through history? Why does it have to be punitive instead of inspirational to be self-reliant? Because it sounds very unnatural for a social animal such as us humans to try to be completely self-reliant... We depend on others, we always have been and we probably always will, so leverage that instead of striving for some weird artificial sense of independence.
- doonesbury 6y ago
  The American system is equal opportunity not equal outcomes. The latter is the euro model. Both parts of the world often underperform the stated value/goal and we American's have some work to do here. Without throwing capitalism out it would not kill to restore the pendulum back to the middle. US corporations under the rubric of maximizing shareholder value + DC support for tax accounting + liberal accommodation for globalism has given the powerful too much of a structural bias. And def not talking solutions ala Trump here. In this way universal or basic income is a no go here.