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> Why don't they have goals and aspirations? Who says they don't? People living on state benefits may yet have things they are passionate about. Their time is
by Mediterraneo10 6y ago
> Why don't they have goals and aspirations?
Who says they don't? People living on state benefits may yet have things they are passionate about. Their time is spent doing something, and sometimes that is something good for society, even though it isn't immediately profit-generating.
Living in Finland I met a man who was perpetually on the dole, but he was an extremely active Wikipedia editor, for example. I have often thought if that basic income existed, I could finally do some of the huge OpenStreetMap expeditions I had in mind (adding house numbers for the entire surrounding region, for example.)
Yes, some unemployed people might turn to drink, drugs, or petty crime, but this can be solved by building community infrastructure. The ills of the Parisian banlieues, for example, are often ascribed not just to unemployment, but to the fact that all the cultural and leisure facilities that were promised back in the 1970s were never actually built.
- nickff 6y agoYour comment actually illustrates one thing I find repulsive about basic income proposals; many people seem to want basic income to finance a life of vanity, where they help no one more than themselves.
- mofosyne 6y agoStill more ethical than a vegan having to compromise their morals by taking a butchering job because they can't find any other jobs and need to feed their kids and have a roof over their head.
- nickff 6y agoThat seems like a false choice.
- pmiller2 6y ago> ...a life of vanity, where they help no one more than themselves. This is what most people do anyway. So, what's the problem?
- nickff 6y agoI don't want to enable further selfishness and vanity.
- pmiller2 6y agoSo, basically, you just don't like what you think people would do with their time, if given the chance because they're not chained to a job? Sorry if this sounds overly confrontational, but I couldn't think of a more civil way to say it.
- nickff 6y agoI was specifically responding to a comment which said: >"Living in Finland I met a man who was perpetually on the dole, but he was an extremely active Wikipedia editor, for example. I have often thought if that basic income existed, I could finally do some of the huge OpenStreetMap expeditions I had in mind (adding house numbers for the entire surrounding region, for example.)" It is my opinion that those are examples of vanity projects which provide little benefit to others, which is why I said: >>"Your comment actually illustrates one thing I find repulsive about basic income proposals..." I never said that this was true for any and all people, or that: >>>"[I] just don't like what you think people would do with their time, if given the chance because they're not chained to a job"
- Mediterraneo10 6y agoWikipedia and OSM are generally seen as major human achievements because they bring a huge amount of generally reliable data to the whole world on a libre basis, and you call them vanity projects? For them to be vanity, one's work would have to actually be deeply associated with one's identity so that one could look good in the eyes of others. In fact, 99.9% of people using that data will not know or care who originally contributed it, and editing these resources is about as thankless a task as can be.
- pmiller2 6y agoRight, but, apparently editing Wikipedia and improving OSM aren't things you approve of someone receiving UBI doing. I'm guessing there are other things people would be enabled to do by UBI that you wouldn't approve of as well.