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RE: Basic Income? (revised intro - excuse my lack of understanding at the time of writing this)
Basic income is not utopian. It's being experimented with in Canada and probably elsewhere.
Protestant work ethos and religious 'sins' ideas about humanity is what holds policies based on the sovereign invidual back
I'm located in Canada and from what I've heard it's only 1 province testing it out and all it is is essentially welfare for everyone regardless of their financial situation.
Which is great, assuming you're piss testing these people and not just handing out free money to degenerates that are just going to siphon it into the black market or wherever else.
The idea of universal income is indeed a utopian ideal. Regardless of how it's spun. Atleast in my eyes anyways..! (I'm often wrong)
There was a basic income trial in Canada in the 70's overall the was a rise in employment, the only area's where there was a drop in work was mothers of young children and young people who chose education. It's also been tried in nambia with similar results and there are also a couple of europian countries that will be trying various versions of it over the next few years.
The thing is Utopian ideas have a habit of happening there was a time ending the slave trade, women voting, equal rights for black people, lesbians and gays were all seen as utopian flights of fancy.
Will basic income solve everything of course not there will always be those that skate by but freeing those who are stuck simply because most of their efforts are taken up just trying to meet their basic needs will be benificial to us all.
Interesting!
I'd love to see this study and browse over it..! I didn't realize that Canada had tested this back in the hippy era... However I do note that they are re-testing it again.. If it didn't work in the 70's what's the tweak to make it feasable now?
I think giving a bunch of millennials money will likely be the downfall of productivity and employment rates in the future if they do go through with it.
You don't truly appreciate something unless you've put the work in to earn it. People don't respect money given to them freely as they would money they spent sweat equity and life hours on.
As someone who's been both a slothful lazy ass and worked 16+ hour days for months on end doing physical labour jobs with huge stretches of work and little rest all I've got to go off of is my own personal experience..
Something tells me though basic income it either going to get spent on beer / drugs by your average 18-25 year old with few of those funds actually being used for their intended purpose.. Tis only speculation on my part though
from what I can gather the trial in the 70's was successful but political situations changed and politicians pulled the plug without properly going through the results at the time (i don't have a link to the study but I'll get some interesting links to you once the girls are in bed)
Of course there will be those that do fuck all and live off the money but for each one of those people their is someone trapped in a dead end job barely making ends meet who dreams of starting a business, caring for a sick family member, or just so busy meeting their basic needs to survive that it's impossible to focus on the future let alone plan for it and it's those people who will contribute far more than the lazy ones cost.
Aye, but by enabling a generation of freeloaders you're likely to see the GDP drop, Unemployment rates increase as well as other less than desirable things go on. (I'm merely speculating here but given state of society over here in North America I'd bet my shiny left nut it goes this way)
The lazy ones who are poor get all of the benifits where as the hard workers getting the same baasic income serves as no greater reward when compared to the lazy bum with nothing who eats for free on the govt dime.
I can google it phoenix. No worries. You've got more on the go family / raising an army wise than I do at the moment. :)
It was called Mincome.
Results were: Better health (still measureable 30 years later, dont know if today) both phys and psych, more education, more divorces (very interesting point)
Regading the useless, take e.g. this: https://thecorrespondent.com/541/why-we-should-give-free-money-to-everyone/20798745-cb9fbb39
oh, and that one
http://boingboing.net/2015/05/26/poverty-is-a-tax-on-cognition.html
@klye that last comment rminded me of a chat my grandma had with my uncle when he was having a rant about 80's kids "being a bunch of lazy feckers", It was rare to see my grandma so angry so i remember every word lol, she said "Every generation thinks they worked harder than the next and it's never true, but your generation have some nerve you took everything our generation fought,protested and worked for to make your lives easier. You used it to your full advantage and are now dismantalling all of it for the next gneration making them work harder than you ever had to."
Sadly I think a lot of our generation are continuing the trend our parents started.
Well you are ranting about assumptions towards people without creating an argument as to why basic income can't work.
Basic Income has a basic principle in common with welfare, yes. doesnt dis/prove anything.
There is more evidence that people will create and contribute when they have the needs hierarchy met then there is evidence that people will just do nothing. Canadas welfare system does not meet basic needs it's not a model for the feasibility of BI.
Basic income could work, However by simply printing bills or cutting the spending budget elsewhere you'll realize very soon after that what end up happening is you end up breeding a lazy peoples which you're unable to siphon tax money to thrown back into the system.
Money exists as a tool to make trading easier but also to invoke stress on your average person.. This stress motivates people to get up out of bed and do productive things. If you cover everyones basic needs with about 4-5 generations what you'll be left with is a bunch of unskilled, lazy un-sustainable inhabitants and no tax income to support them.