Posted on 01/03/2018 10:29:16 AM PST by SeekAndFind
QUESTION: What is your opinion of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg idea of universal income?
ANSWER: The idea of free money being touted by Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg only demonstrates that they know nothing about humanity or economics. They see universal free money as a cushion for workers whose jobs might be replaced by automation or robots. They argue that free money could provide workers with the flexibility to retrain for a new career, pursue creative interests, or start their own business.
If we are talking about a temporary benefit during a retraining period, then that is an entirely different idea from a universal basic income guarantee. You can drive down the streets in New Jersey and you see hand-made signs posted that they pay cash for diabetes medical material handed out free by the government. They also sell food stamps. You cannot change humanity. Some people will obey the rules and others will circumvent them.
The last thing you want to do in society is provide to the population some sort of guaranteed income where people can stay home and do nothing. This will foster the same hatred of anyone who works and has more than they do and it will promote hatred and class warfare.
When the automobile was invented, that displaced people who were carpenters making wagons. When the Dust Bow hit during the Great Depression, it added to the displacement of farmers. The tractors replaced people tilling the soil just as the cotton gin replaced slave labor in the South. Technology will always replace workers and the greater the tax burden, the greater the incentive to replace workers.
Neither Elon Musk nor Mark Zuckerberg has any clue about economic history for if they did, they would understand that technology always advances and displaces segments of the workforce. This is also one reason governments like war to thin the herd when unemployment rises.
Providing free money is actually an experiment in Finland. It began one year ago taking 2,000 unemployed Finns who were randomly selected from across the country for a trial testing universal basic income. Each month for two years they would receive €560 euros from the government, tax-free. They can spend the money however they decide. The plus of this program is the reduction in bureaucracy. As I said, the US government hands out food stamps but people sell them. From an economic standpoint, this system is less costly than the current one in play with bureaucrats determining what they will allow people to have or not. The full report on the Finland experiment will not be issued until the 2-year program is complete after January 1st, 2019.
Insanity.
Next question
Insanity.
It is a simple economic fact that the amount of income at which the “universal basic income” is set will effectively become the new zero.
Inflationary
Neither. It’s pathological laziness. Sloth.
And God had plenty to say about that.
ANSWER: It is Totalitarian Economic Command and Control which has been proven countless times to be miserable and and unmitigated disaster.
Not to mention that federal attempts in this area would be patently unconstitutional, if ANYONE cares about the Constitution anymore. The Constitution is merely the ONLY LEGAL bulwark of freedom against the tyranny of the feds. Maybe that would be a good reason to actually care about reinstating the Constitution as the Supreme Law of the Land
Seems to me that paying people not to work has failed or is failing everywhere it has been tried.
Are either of these two billionaire ‘RAT turds paying their employees the same income they are receiving?
Don’t believe these Lying Leftist Media outlets like the socialist sympathizing ARMSTRONG ECONOMICS. They are presumed to be lying and we should presume what they publish is a lie. The presumption can only be rebutted with the outlet providing clear and convincing evidence they are not lying.
Why don’t we follow Trump’s lead here on FR? Let’s limit posting headlines from these wretched Lying Leftist outlets. It’s okay, like Trump, to read this stuff, so you know what they’re up to - just don’t post using these Lying Leftist outlets as the source which is a form of promoting their lies. Do like Trump – post the truth about the issue using a reasonably reliable source or yourself as the source. That’s how to EXPOSE the lies without promoting them.
It is a simple economic fact that the amount of income at which the “universal basic income” is set will effectively become the new zero.
So was the idea of forcing people to pay a "tax" if they didn't carry health insurance.
Redistributionism has a harmful effect on the creation of aggregate wealth in a rational, modern, advanced division of labor economy. This can be proven mathematically.
So is 80+% of federal acts these days. What else is new?
Anybody care about living under tyranny versus living in freedom from tyranny? Well, that’s what this “culture war” is all about
save
Yes, that is the mechanism by which the “universal basic income” becomes the new zero income.
The only good argument for UBI is: if we ARE going to have a welfare state one way or another, rather than funding a massive bureaucracy to decide (often arbitrarily) who receives “entitlements” and legislators wasting time trying to legislate what those entitlements are, better to just divvy it all up equally and give flat checks to everyone, to spend as each individual sees fit.
But therein lies the problem: the massive bureaucracy is self-sustaining and self-protecting, and will not go quietly in lieu of UBI. It will morph with a vengeance into a new layer of influence, motivated to identify & service those for whom UBI will be insufficient (either in totality or because many recipients will just waste it and demand more), restoring the same massive bureaucracy just shifted up one expensive layer.
Nothing visionary about it... The results were predictable; the admins and entry level employees were pounding down the door to get in, but the folks that had the ideas and produced went somewhere that would pay them what the other employer thought they were worth.
I do have one bone to pick - "This will foster the same hatred of anyone who works and has more than they do and it will promote hatred and class warfare."
There are plenty of folks that work and still hate those that also work, but have more than they do. It is called envy and it is a vile trait in any person. We have an entire political party based on one of the worst character defects in humanity.
Revelations 6:6
Entrepreneurs find ways to take advantage of what they see in the world.
Musk saw green energy subsidies and made billions.
Future Musks would see lots of people with “basic income” and find ways to take that income and demand it be increased so their customers can live with dignity after falling for whatever scam they fell for.
Without “basic income”, future entrepreneurs will see a large pool of unemployed people who need an income. If the government allows it, they will find a use for that resource. If the government takes it away with “basic income” or discourages it with taxes/regulations, it won’t happen in the US.
Current/near-future technology WILL displace more workers (by number if not %) than any change in the past. The question is which country(s) will be the leader in “whatever comes next”? Liberals do not want the US to be the home for the workforce of the future.
This is, I believe, a movement to put blue collar workers back in their place. And by their place, I mean where arrogant academics think they belong. I sat at a dinner with young faculty who were espousing a government supported universal basic income with ‘incentivized’ pay according to academic accomplishments. I glared, rolled my eyes and left. Such ignorance, and this system already has a name, and has been a failure many times.
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