Better than UBI: Providing 🏡 housing 🏡 Better and Cheaper.

There has been a lot of talk, and a huge push for Universal Basic Income. (UBI)
I do not agree with UBI on many fronts the least of which is that UBI is downright evil. The method I would choose if I wanted to destroy a people.

But, lets talk here about what everyone arguing for UBI actually wants, and see if we can give that to the people better and cheaper.

The proponents of UBI want no person to go without food, clothing and shelter. There idea is to give everyone some money each month to afford these things. And they believe that giving them money would make sure they get these essential. But, what guarantee is there, that a set amount of money will afford food, clothing and shelter?

Lets say that we gave everyone $500 a month to afford housing. If there was places to rent for $390 the day before, they would immediately disappear the day after. All the lowest priced rentals would become $500 a month. Further, there would be corporations that moved in to make minimalistic apartments for $500. What ends up happening is that for $500 you rent a room in the slums. And, the money that UBI gives you goes directly to the bankster's friends. The ones that the bankersters gave the really good loans to, to buy up all the cheap properties that will be guaranteed to rent for $500.

Don't believe me? Then research New York City and rent controls and slum lords.

And if you believe the infusion of money would make it all better, just look at Harlem. If throwing money at the situation helped, then Harlem would be a shining beacon to the world. But, it is worse today than when they started.

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I would suggest, if we want everyone to have housing, then we build a house for everyone. With a fraction of any federal budget we would care to look at, we could build a tiny apartment for every person in america. And, when we finished building them, the only cost would be maintenance. We wouldn't be giving the banksters and their friends money every month. Throwing money down a hole that would never be filled.

The price for new home construction is about $100 a square foot.
If we built everyone a single bedroom 400 sq ft. apartment, that would be about $40,000.
$40,000 / $500 a month = 6 - 2/3s years.

If we built everyone a single room 250 sq ft. apartment, that would be $25,000
$25,000 / $500 a month = 4 years.

And, we could probably get this price down even further with newer construction methods and not using full appliances, or no kitchen at all. We could get it even lower if we used shared bathrooms.
We could get it even lower if the community got together and built it with donated labor and materials.

So, four years, as opposed to paying someone's rent for their 70ish years of life.
That is quite a savings. A savings that every tax payer would enjoy.
And, most cities have much higher rents, so their tax payer base will enjoy even greater savings.

An important point is that these tiny apartments need to be built by the communities. If the federal govern-cement built them, they would shortly become prison cells. When they are built and maintained by the community, they are a source of shelter for any who fall off the ladder for whatever reason. If the govern-cement built them, it would be a move everyone into a tightly packed, tightly monitored housing project. It would become the only housing, as the entire population of America was slowly moved onto reservations.

For all of those people who are currently arguing that if we had UBI, then each person could make the choice of where they lived. That just building places to live would limit people's choices. However, this plan would not limit them, and will probably make it easier for someone to live where they want.

In many of the high priced areas, UBI wouldn't afford them even a shared bedroom, so UBI would have the opposite effect as it inflated those prices even more. But, actually building rooms for everybody would lighten the load on the existing housing, making them far more affordable. So, if you really wanted to live somewhere, you would find some way to make money, and work out how to afford it. Knowing, that if you fail, you always have a place to go.

Another very important part about just providing housing, instead of providing money, to buy housing, is that there is a group of people who cannot manage their affairs to pay for housing each month.

Further, providing housing straight to the people will probably cost less than just the administration costs of section 8 housing. The only reason that we do not do this is that the banksters can't continue making money with ever increasing mortgages. And the banks run this country.

All images in this post are my own original creations.