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RE: Contest for Free Entry to Steem Basic Income plus two SBDs.
Thanks for encouraging us to think about this. My three sentences:
The temptation is to start with a moral argument, but this appeal has never been persuasive to those at the top of the income stream, so we have to address self-interest (of the wealthy). Gross inequality destabilizes governments (see: French and Russian Revolutions), and leads to economic stagnation. A Universal Basic Income will put money in consumers' hands, thus fueling the economy and encouraging civic order.
OK. That's my three sentences. I really enjoyed getting that out. I could have gone on. Good thing you had a limit :)
I think that is a good strategy to appeal to the self-interest of the wealthy. That's how policies reliably get implemented. A worrying trend today is that the ability of governments to perform surveillance on the citizens and control them is rapidly increasing. Also the armies of the future might be composed of drones rather than citizens with dubious loyalty to the government. The wealthy might feel like the ability of the peasants to de-stabilise the government is a thing of the past.
You're right--the greater concentration of power we give to the government (always, ironically, on the premise that it increases our security) the greater danger we run that that the government will be tyrannical. And drones (despite my story about #1 and the enamored robot), do not have hearts. They will have no problem shooting civilians. So we go back to the economic argument--an economy grows when money is injected into it. Printed government money doesn't work. That just leads to inflation. Consumers, millions and billions of them, with money to spend, are the best stimulus. Consumption is the fuel that keeps a capitalist economy humming. I think :) My grasp of economics is very, very basic.
I just saw the notice on Steemd that you selected my answer. Thank you. It must be hard to judge between so many good, sincere responses. I'm grateful, for winning and for your generosity in running the contest.
This is a community based on financial incentive, but it is a community. People like you help it to grow. I'll try to do my part.
The award is much appreciated. Thanks again.
UBI is really something I believe in, hopefully as Steemit grows SBI can partially function as a UBI. there was a good discussion on this post, the only thing I felt was lacking a little bit was engagement between people commenting. This is also true on Steemit in general, people mostly just interact with the author. In my next competition I'm going to add a few incentives towards having people interact with each other.
I believe in it too, for all the reasons I said, but mostly because it's right. Every religious tradition endorses the idea of that kind of equity. I'd be happy to participate in the sort of discussion you suggest--I don't want an award. I'd be happy to see your experiment succeed.