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Everyone is talking about basic income as an experiment and wondering about its impact on productivity and human behavior. And everyone talks about hypothetical
by miroljub 8mo ago
Everyone is talking about basic income as an experiment and wondering about its impact on productivity and human behavior. And everyone talks about hypothetical scenarios and a need for massive tests, without realizing that we already have a massive test data about basic income.
There's a huge group of people in western countries that has received unconditional basic income for decades, without any requirements. No questions asked, no documents required, no forced work. They could basically use that free money to flourish and pursue whatever creative activity they could imagine, without fear of economic downsides.
And we know the results already. We see it in our cities daily. But as a society, we have decided not to talk about it so we are not called racists or far right. Instead, we keep ignoring this massive group with an equivalent of basic income and keep pretending we still require experiments on its effects.
But yeah, let's test a few dozen Irish artists and keep pretending everyone needs to work for a living.
- danparsonson 8mo agoYou'd need to be more specific - who/what is this huge group of people you're referring to?
- miroljub 8mo ago> You'd need to be more specific - who/what is this huge group of people you're referring to? I already explained why I don't want to say it aloud in this context. Your guess is as good as anyone's. > ... as a society, we have decided not to talk about it so we are not called racists or far right.
- danparsonson 8mo agoI'm not interested in guessing what your opinion is, I'm hoping you'll share it. I don't think you'll be unfairly judged; of course if you are actually being racist then it's not unfair for anyone to call that out. I don't feel like 'society' has decided not to talk about certain things to avoid name calling; I've personally only heard that kind of phrase coming from someone who holds a racist opinion but doesn't like the label, but I'm always opening to broadening my mind. Enlighten me!
- miroljub 8mo agoI think we are at the point where we both know which groups are meant. I assume that you live in the USA, which has strong free speech and privacy laws, so you don't need to worry. The rest of us are not that lucky, so the best we can get away with is hinting and hoping no one takes close attention.