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Being paid to do a job isn't public assistance. You can argue CEOs are overpaid, and you can argue government contracting companies engage in regulatory captur

by rory 5y ago

Being paid to do a job isn't public assistance. You can argue CEOs are overpaid, and you can argue government contracting companies engage in regulatory capture, but this scenario is so tangential that it has zero bearing on the question at hand.

RC_ITR 5y ago
>Being paid to do a job isn't public assistance. It is when the government decided to outsource a core function (defense) to private industry, solely to enrich people like the CEO of Lockheed Martin. The head of Medicare makes $450k, why does the head of a company who basically does a government function make 60x that, if not because the US has decided to offer MASSSIVE public assistance to a very small group of already wealthy people? EDIT: And my point in all of this which you seem to be missing, is that why do you care SO MUCH about the tax revenue that goes to poor people, when you write off much larger amounts of tax revenue that go to rich people? Is it because you think that spending that money to reward people who enable wars in the Middle East is a less bad outcome than some dude doing smack?
- rory 5y ago
  > why do you care SO MUCH about the tax revenue that goes to poor people I really think you might have made your way into the wrong thread. Both I and the thread OP are arguing against the idea that UBI can replace existing social spending. That is to say, we would still need to keep some of the existing social benefit programs if UBI were implemented. No one here is saying we should take away benefits from the poor, and anger about gov't contractors is not even a tiny bit related to the actual discussion at hand.
  - RC_ITR 5y ago
    I'm arguing that literally any limit on cash given to poor people is a paternalistic overstep because we do not do the same for the cash we give to rich people. The metaphor is 'Why do we tell poor people that this $1 can only be spent on certain types of food' when we don't say ' This $1 of pork barrel spending can't be used on CEO bonuses unless that CEO submits to regular drug testing.' I don't know why this is such a hard concept? Maybe you & I just give up?

by rory 5y ago

RC_ITR 5y ago

>Being paid to do a job isn't public assistance. It is when the government decided to outsource a core function (defense) to private industry, solely to enrich people like the CEO of Lockheed Martin. The head of Medicare makes $450k, why does the head of a company who basically does a government function make 60x that, if not because the US has decided to offer MASSSIVE public assistance to a very small group of already wealthy people? EDIT: And my point in all of this which you seem to be missing, is that why do you care SO MUCH about the tax revenue that goes to poor people, when you write off much larger amounts of tax revenue that go to rich people? Is it because you think that spending that money to reward people who enable wars in the Middle East is a less bad outcome than some dude doing smack?

rory 5y ago
> why do you care SO MUCH about the tax revenue that goes to poor people I really think you might have made your way into the wrong thread. Both I and the thread OP are arguing against the idea that UBI can replace existing social spending. That is to say, we would still need to keep some of the existing social benefit programs if UBI were implemented. No one here is saying we should take away benefits from the poor, and anger about gov't contractors is not even a tiny bit related to the actual discussion at hand.
- RC_ITR 5y ago
  I'm arguing that literally any limit on cash given to poor people is a paternalistic overstep because we do not do the same for the cash we give to rich people. The metaphor is 'Why do we tell poor people that this $1 can only be spent on certain types of food' when we don't say ' This $1 of pork barrel spending can't be used on CEO bonuses unless that CEO submits to regular drug testing.' I don't know why this is such a hard concept? Maybe you & I just give up?