Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Finance, the economy & Economics Guaranteed minimum income

Please do not speak for me, Greger. I am thankful that the level of my intelligence is not degraded by these insane relics of the Protestant Work Ethic.
I am happy to provide a tithe of my income, in order to make society function humanely, rationally and efficiently, so that others may be as lazy (or productive) as they like. In the long run, I will be safer and happier that way.
The brainwashing of this society makes the brain-dead believe that we live in a society of scarcity. One look at the lavish waste of resources on the military would cause anyone who still had their marbles to see the folly of that notion.
Long ago, we passed from the Age of Scarcity to an Age of Abundance. This has kept our ruling classes at their wits' end to find ways of wasting the abundance so that they might maintain their own power. The problem that society faces is how to manage abundance without destroying itself or having that abundance destroy the world around us. So far, society has failed miserably.
In other words, everyone would live as the rich already do.
Society would function much better if every young person had the options which the rich assume as a matter of course.
Words fail me to express my contempt and disgust at the vulgar lower middle class and proletareian belief that a young person should be thrown out into the world with no resources, to make his own way, to "make a man of him," or find favor with God, or some such imbecility. That is an unconscionable, loathsome waste of human potential when a young mind is at its most flexible, vigorous and innovative stage of development. It is an idiotic error which established, well-to-do families rarely make. They see to it that their offspring get off to a good start in the world.
Congratulations, Greger! That shows that you, unlike most other people, are still able to think.
Of course, as in any other prudent, upper middle class family, we would want to see that a young person would not waste such wealth in short-sighted or riotous living. Naturally, the money should be reserved for education, housing, insurance and other expenditures that would increase his or her chances of leading a happy life, and one useful to the world.

Without going to absurdities, like seriously proposing that lazy people need not work, most of what I see here, is leading towards
the basics of capital homesteading.

But then, it's much more fun to start from scratch, than to learn from an existing model.

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Oh, you are arch, Cousin It, very arch! · · · ;

But remember, what might be absurd to one person might make sense to someone free of brainwashing.

Having a good day, are you, Alferd? Your posts are more boring than usual. Why not try contributing for a change instead of trolling through casting your crap upon the waters?

Or is it beneath your vaunted intellect?

Capital homesteading...??? Seems I've heard something of this...?? Wonder what it could have been.

correct!

Interesting that so many "deep thinkers" have attention spans that don't extend to actually reading the subject matter that they are so quick to disparage, but isn't that the way of the world?

Perhaps an idea whose time has not yet come.
I don't think we were trying to invent a system to actually pull it off, Just considering the ramifications if suddenly it became possible. How could it not make life easier?
Both lazy and ambitious would get a jump start onto a level playing field. It still wouldn't make life fair, or easy or any of those other things they never said life was gonna be. It would give choices and direction to many who would never have had a choice or a direction.

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There is another aspect to a guaranteed annual income which I think is important. It would provide, for many, an escape from inner-city slums and other death-traps of American society. People would have the resources, minimal though they might be, to move to places where living expenses are less -- for instance, to rural areas. This would bring human capital to areas where it might be needed, give opportunities for employment which otherwise people might not get, encourage co-operative enterprise, and generally shake up lives which all too often are mired in a rut of hopelessness and dependence -- in the Wonderful Land of Opportunity known as the USA.

That's about the total cost of two wars and an unfunded prescription drug benefit plus a bailout or two, isn't it?