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You've just touched on the greatest challenge to US basic income, in my opinion. I am an outsider, but from everything I know about the american culture (or ma
by darkmighty 11y ago
You've just touched on the greatest challenge to US basic income, in my opinion.
I am an outsider, but from everything I know about the american culture (or maybe from a large part of the world?), the average american is willing to sacrifice general welfare to punish a handful of slackers.
It results from centuries of culture regarding work ethics and whatnot (wherein working more innevitably meant being more happy, more successful, better integrated in the community, etc) but it simply will stop making sense. Work is not the end goal, it was merely a necessary means. So I have no trouble seeing the average american irrationally reject this kind of mechanism even if themselves (and society as a whole) were worse off.
It goes along with the quote [along the lines of] "Every american thinks of himself as an only temporarily embarrassed millionaire".
- api 11y agoYou are absolutely correct. As is the case in other countries with a strong religious fundamentalist base, there are many who are willing to suffer in order to punish perceived sinfulness. I guess you see the most extreme version of this with Islamic fundamentalism-- "I want to die so that you can die." How people manage not to see this as a form of moral nihilism is beyond me-- it's basically selfless malice. In the old days I suppose these creeds existed to enforce discipline in a hostile zero-sum world, but today they're pointless and achieve nothing but the perpetuation of suffering.