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The dose makes the poison. The universal nature drastically increases the proportion, from a single-digit minority to a majority approaching 99%, who stand to b
by offby37years 6y ago
The dose makes the poison. The universal nature drastically increases the proportion, from a single-digit minority to a majority approaching 99%, who stand to benefit from increased redistribution. From there it's a spiral to complete redistribution.
- dragonwriter 6y agoBut if the threat is people voting to expand it, they can just as easily vote to expand means tested welfare, and just as many people “stand to benefit”. There doesn't seem to be any basis at all to the speculation that UBI crosses some divide where this effect—which has long been used as an argument against democracy itself though it has never been demonstrated—will suddenly become real.
- offby37years 6y agoYou're describing an artificial minority maintained through means-testing. That's not UBI.
- dragonwriter 6y agoYes, means-tested welfare is different than UBI. But it's not different in a way that I see any coherent argument makes UBI more prone to being turned into a transfer from the wealthier bare-minority to the poorer bare-minority through democratic process. (Classically, that threat is an argument against democracy generally, recently it's been retooled as an argument against UBI; in both forms its a narrative appealing to the assumed ignorance and venality of the masses that doesn't seem to have much support in actual behavior of real democratic systems.)