Is Universal Basic Income a Universally Bad Idea?

h20ho (41)in #ubi • 6 years ago

Universal Basic Income (UBI)

UBI is a type of program in which citizens of a country may receive a regular sum of money from a source such as the government. Another way of stating that is a type of program in which non-productive or incapable citizens of a country receive money from the productive or capable tax-paying citizens of a country of which these taxes are involuntarily collected from the tax payer by pointing a gun at them.

Why UBI?

The first issue to ponder is why would anyone consider giving people free money to do nothing or giving people the same money for doing different jobs, for different amounts of time for different degrees of competence? The only time this type of reasoning is apparent is with communist-inclined attitudes. It does not, has not and will never work unless you treat some segment of the population poorly. The segment of the population that you would have to treat poorly are the most gifted in your society which are the people who have the most talent, are the most productive or are the most intelligent.

Mechanization

Some argue that with the advent of robotization an onslaught of job loss will arise. Research suggests that within the next 20 years 40% to 60% of today's current jobs will be replaced by mechanization. Increased computer power and machine learning will intensify these proclivities. However, when considering the past, all previous industrial revolutions have resulted not only in more jobs, but better-quality jobs.

UBI is a Universally Bad Idea

This article will focus on why UBI is a universally bad idea. UBI will remove your appeal to meaningless and the quality of jobs, it demotivates people, dissolves any social cohesion, is financially irresponsible and increases the gap between inequality while increasing poverty.

UBI Pilot Programs

In some areas it is already being tested which should lead any reasonable person to ask why we are testing it. The answer to this might surprise you. We are testing it to ensure it will be used to keep people learning new skills, to set up their own businesses and to continue looking for jobs.

A UBI Paradox

See the problem? The reason for UBI is because there are no jobs, but the reason for running UBI pilot programs are to ensure you keep looking for jobs¬¬—which came first the chicken or the egg type problem or give people addictive drugs to make them not addicted to drugs. These pilot programs are not universal, not permanent and teach nothing about how UBI would work. What is the point of these pilot programs?

Robots will take all the Jobs

If Robots can produce the GDP of a nation unsupervised then why not just distribute that GDP across the population equally? Why would we even need pilot programs? No one thinks machines will ever work autonomously unsupervised. As robots cannot provide all the finances required, then some people will need to finance UBI, some people will need to work, be productive, earn income and be taxed but how will that be done? How will they be motivated? Issues of inequality arise. Those that work will develop different attitudes than those that do not work. Some people will potentially have more than others. Some people are going to want more fulfilling jobs or jobs that have better conditions or wages.

UBI will allow you to Peruse your Passion

Not everyone has a passion or is even talented enough to manifest their passion as abilities are not equally distributed among people. Additionally, work provides us the experience to improve ourselves and to contribute to our goals and needs.

The marketplace works by providing remuneration based on societal need for a specific job. Society cannot work if everyone were artists. Society needs tradesmen, blue collar workers and professionals whether these workers have a passion for their positions or not. A job you are not passionate about is much more tolerable if it pays the bills and even more tolerable if it more than pays the bills.

Dirty, Unpleasant Jobs

Imagine how quickly you would grab that job in the middle of a cold ocean on an oil rig with a few hundred other people doing a job that is dirty, stinky, difficult and dangerous. Imagine the people that are about to retire and the onslaught of new workers that would be lining up for those jobs if we had UBI. Zilch, zero, nada. If we paid workers more than people on UBI, then this difference would leave recipients solely relying upon UBI as feeling like they live a less dignified life relatively. They would lobby for increased UBI and as UBI is raised fewer and fewer people would want to work and those that did work would be taxed more and more further increasing the need for higher wages and increasing this gap between UBI recipients and the few workers that still existed.

Road Sign with DREAM JOB and Sky

MA in Lesbian Dance Theory

Today’s work force is already complaining about having degrees and not finding work in their fields. Having a master’s degree or PhD. and working at Starbucks or better yet, not working at all is not and should not be the goal.

Who is going to do the Work?

Results from the countries, states and areas that are dabbling in UBI pilot programs are already deeply in debt and exhibit low productivity whilst looking at huge increases in pensions and health expenditures just around the corner as an aging population demands what was promised to them by governments that demanded taxes for such services and programs from them for the past 45 years.

Societies' moral obligations to fight poverty and homelessness should have a caveat and social contract with its citizens--finish high school at least, marry before having a child, and marry after the age of 20. This is not asking too much and when did education get put on the back burner regarding how to help people along in life. Look at what happens to people who live in tents on city sidewalks and have no need to pay rent. Do they have a better quality of life among all the discarded needles?

Our irresponsible governments are so greedy they do not even put our pensions into perpetual endowments to fund them. They steal every penny of it and then complain that we never paid enough. Enough is enough. Now they want me to believe that they can handle this monumental task. Why would I ever have confidence in them considering their past performance work histories?