- A Seattle basic income pilot gave low-income residents $500 a month, nearly doubling employment rates.
- Some participants reported getting new housing, while others saw their employment incomes rise.
- Basic income pilots nationwide have seen noteworthy success, despite conservative opposition.
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It pays off immediately. The return on investment can literally be seen almost instantly. The problem with UBI in an unregulated market is that “inflation/price gouging/collusion” will begin immediately. It’s just like student loan forgiveness, the benefits are immediate but if you don’t fix the underlying cause, your actual return it’s massively minimized due to the very bullshit that necessitated the fix.
> If your kid is starving because they keep getting beaten up for their lunch money, you can’t solve the problem by giving them more lunch money – the bullies will take that money too.
Credit @pluralistic
That’s a fantastic analogy.
@Bakkoda @theotherverion SNAP drives food prices, and this time around to some degree, interest rates.
@Bakkoda @theotherverion
It’s actually kinda weird how fast and how clearly it pays off, and at what rate of returns. There is no short term economic reason to not do this. The medium term inflationary issues are a potential problem, depending on how much is given out, but typically less than it seems. It turns out the image of ‘they just collect free money and do nothing’ isn’t a thing.
Not saying there are no hurdles possible. But the standard objections are just wrong.
Right wingers like you supporting UBI is how I know it will just be used as a bait and switch to slash social welfare programs because “now we have UBI!” but UBI won’t be anywhere enough to actually support people and it will get purposefully jammed by the rich in a position of not providing enough money and not rising with inflation.
Right wing people getting excited about UBI honestly tells you everything you need to know, it is a “solution” to the class war going on that doesn’t require recognizing ANY of the actual politics involved in the class war nor how the rich won’t voluntarily give us anything unless we organize to the point that we scare the shit out of them.
UBI in the current political reality is a facade of a solution that doesn’t require an honest conversation about the problem, which explains exactly why conservatives like it.
🔥
@theotherverion @rimu I’ll be sure to tell my 90-year-old mom (who’s probably got at least 8 years left), to hurry up and get off her ass.
The knot in the right-wing angle is the belief that the church, the family, or other philanthropy will meet the perpetual need. The harsh reality is that there are and always will be people who don’t and won’t ever have what it takes to provide “enough value,” as defined by people with money, to a free market.
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@theotherverion My mom wouldn’t have a pension. She was effectively a clergyman’s wife full time, who has and is still spending spent quite a bit of time caring for my disabled brother, who hasn’t ever been properly “gainfully employed” despite desperate efforts that have now come out in the wash as traumatic, not just to my brother.
The model works for babies, too. The question is: who pays (etc.) the care workers?
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@theotherverion Right, but despite decades of failed and emotionally traumatic attempts at getting him employed, and my mother never having been employed outside the home, now that they’re both past retirement age, who’s responsible to absorb the cost of their utilities, rent, food, and medical care? Or do we let them rot out in a grassy field somewhere?
I’m not proposing a solution, I’m indicating that employment is frequently not one.
@theotherverion @rimu It’s almost like socialist economics deliver the benefits that conservative economics claim to but fail.
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@theotherverion We’ve had socialized medicine in Canada for 40 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Health_Act
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@theotherverion And? “Economy” ≠ capitalism.
edit: Removed an off-topic paragraph. I read you wrong and responded to something you didn’t say. My bad.
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@theotherverion Okay.
@OrionKidder @theotherverion Frankly, why does it matter what we call things?
The difference between (political) left and right is about what we value over what else. If we’re getting all the things, it doesn’t matter which is “more important”!
The idea that we have to choose between (e.g.) economy and regulation, healthcare and incentives, is just nonsense. (Nonsense often pushed by people who call themselves right wing, sure, but that doesn’t reflect on everyone who uses that label.)
@wizzwizz4 @theotherverion We use names for political practices and ideologies to sort them into like and unlike, to get a large-scale view. That said, I take your point. There are polices that seem to satisfy everyone. France’s “crèche” system, which supplies childcare to a third of the country and has effectively forced a sea of private competitors is hailed as socialist because it provides as service but also beloved by employers because new mothers can go back to work immediately.
@wizzwizz4 @theotherverion Of course, France also has universal healthcare, mandated maternity leave, unlimited sick days, and month-long vacations every year. There are loads of socialist measures in place as well as the crèche.
That’s why my take on what you’re saying is different. It matters what we call it because Socialism Works. Everyone benefits when we share. It even works for the rich and the employer class, if only they’d get their heads out of their asses and be honest about it.