Posted on 05/20/2015 8:27:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
That was in 1996. Computers have been with us for over 30 years, and yet there are tons of people who still do not know how to use one, how to work with them, how to use the applications that have been around for more than two decades. Most of them are otherwise smart people but just seem confused and confounded by technology.
Also, the prospect of replacing the bloated, inefficient, redundant systems of welfare and social services with just a monthly income is worth considering.
Also from that movie, the single best Economics 101 dialogue ever spoken:
George Washington McLintock: Gave? Boy, you've got it all wrong. I don't give jobs I hire men.
Drago: You intend to give this man a full day's work, don'tcha boy?
Devlin Warren: You mean you're still hirin' me? Well, yes, sir, I certainly deliver a fair day's work.
George Washington McLintock: And for that I'll pay you a fair day's wage. You won't give me anything and I won't give you anything. We both hold up our heads.
Kipling wrote a poem about it - Gods of the Copybook Headings
Actually, Milton Friedman pointed out that the only income redistribution scheme that does not create perverse incentives is a non-means-tested uniform payment, a “basic income” if you will. Anything means tested ends up subsidizing poverty, since the effective tax rate for passing through the earnings threshold to not qualify is very high, anything dependent on some other qualification (having a child as a single parent, to give a particularly baleful example) subsidizes the behavior that qualifies.
One problem is it’s hard to figure out how much such a scheme would actually cost. The total payout for a $1000/month per adult citizen scheme (gets everyone to about the Federal poverty level if living alone), but that’s not the cost since implementing it would also involve abolishing all the poverty-alleviation programs and most social service programs (not child protective services or whatever it’s called wherever you are), and cutting Social Security payments by the same amount (since it’s being replaced it doesn’t break faith with those who paid the blasted taxes all those years), and the payments would be taxable income so everyone would return whatever percent their top marginal rate represented.
“There would be no products, no commerce, no asset to purchase. “ — Texas Songwriter
That’s not true. Kuwait is a country that shared their oil wealth with the citizens. There was a time when every citizen received a huge income just for being a citizen. It is still a pretty sweet deal. (And no, I am not advocating stealing oil in the USA to redistribute to the citizens.)
It would be like if you were part of a large extended family and it was discovered that there was a billion-dollar oil field on the land of a patriarch who willed it to be divided among the family. Suddenly everyone is rich.
There is no need to work for the purpose of survival. But goods are still bought and purchased.
This goes back to my earlier statement about how wealth is created. It is not created by tax. It is not created by printing money. It is created three ways: work, innovation, and exploitation of natural resources (in the above examples that is oil).
Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating a living wage / government income. I am saying it is not automatically leftist. Nixon apparently supported the idea. He was fairly conservative.
“The problem with a guaranteed income is the ability of that income to utterly destroy the will to work any harder than minimally necessary.” — mountainbunny
Many people who are very rich keep working because they love to work. Many people who are very poor still refuse to work in spite of the consequences. But I agree that there are many people who go through life only doing the minimum required.
Kuwait does have its problems. Rich citizens do not want to do menial jobs. So what good is it to be a millionaire if you have to pay $80,000 for a fast food burger? How did they solve this? They imported labor. More than half of the population in Kuwait are foreigners / non-citizens. These people do NOT get the government pay, but do have good opportunities to make money.
But the NEED to work in order to survive may become obsolete due to technology. The kids movie Wall-E depicts the dilemma this might create. There is something in the human spirit that needs to work and innovate, but not necessarily just to survive.
Conservatives need to keep in mind that big companies like Apple benefit from the protections of our Republic which are extended by the consent of the governed. The innovators did “earn that”. The workers do “earn that”. Steve Jobs did “build that”, but it could not happen under a totally corrupt regime. It had to happen where the consent of the governed afforded them the necessary protections to innovate and be rewarded for it.
We need to quit looking at ip laws as if they are natural law. They are not. They are a social contract. Citizens need to get a fair deal for their end of this social contract.
Thank you for not leaving me here as the sole voice of reason on this issue. I was expecting to feel very lonely. Good to see there are others who get it.
” Obama recently said that voting should be mandatory similar to Obamacare.
Of course voting has been mandatory in many dictatorships where the vote is rigged and a joke,. “
Don’t worry....Obama’s new Civilian Security Force will make sure you vote.
/bingo
You point is well-taken and accurate. A Centrally-planned economy and society end up failing and starvation, repression and death always follow.
You point is well-taken and accurate. A Centrally-planned economy and society end up failing and starvation, repression and death always follow.
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