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RE: Unconditional Basic Income as the Social Vaccine of the 21st Century
What is the UBI response to loafers? Spendthrifts? While I worked in the military I saw a lot of people who spent more than their means, and ended up with huge debt. It wasn't that their pay was too low; it is that their desire is always too high. Some people are going to live in the now no matter how much money they get.
The response with UBI is that a much broader base of people can create social capital to help out this rather small fraction of the population, a fraction of the population that gets even less support today, by the way.
A basic income is something for the 99.9% of people who'd put it to better use than targeted benefits, I think that's a good objective to act upon in its own right.
edit: Also, a basic income wouldn't have to be a replacement for when there's clearly a greater requirement for more financial or service support like with the severly sick or elderly.
With respect (and I'm passionate about this topic), history shows that giving people free stuff does not create an even improvement across the population. Some people will use their UBI well; they will grow in wealth and contribute in the way UBI advocates expect.
But far more than .1% will waste their money. Where does the 99.9% assumption of frugality come from? The US is incredibly wealthy; I live in a country where people have every opportunity to get off the streets if they want to, and yet there are still people who are consistently broke and poor. And some, not all of those people, (and not .1%) are poor because of their own actions.
Look at ancient Rome's bread and circuses. What did the young roving mobs of men do who had free food? They brutalized others out of boredom.
Survival is a good tool for personal transformation. I'm supportive of helping those who cannot help themselves, but giving free stuff to the able bodied (especially youth) is a level of foolish that only Silicon Valley could think is a good idea.
Focus the money on widows and orphans, and maybe the mentally ill. Everyone else works.