memes

What you described in your other post is slavery masked as UBI. It's like how Trump's right wing talk about "freedom" when what they actually mean is nothing like the freedom people actually want or imagine.

Salaried work is effectively gilded slavery. Unless you've got ahitloads of capital, money is basically already limiting you to a certain bracket of "freedom" that we call your "means", and it's under the duress of poverty and death. The rules, particularly laws, apply a lot more strongly to those who are poor than who are rich. Interest punishes poorer borrowers and rewards those who can barrow with impunity by giving them access to endless credit.

A true UBI is essentially unconditional access to the bare necessities of life. Food, shelter, healthcare, security, and public utilities. Doesn't matter if you never work a day in your life - you are valued because you exist. It should grant those who do not want to work a means to live with dignity, and those who do want to work a secure launch pad for finding a vocation that is right for them.

The claims this would lead to lack of incentives to work is misleading. The psychological reality is well l-raised mentally healthy people who are valued as members of a community wish to serve that community however they can, and don't want to feel like "free loaders". They want to be seen to be contributing and making a difference. Not to be thought of as lazy or useless. We're social creatures and we have an instinct for living in a society. It's why we're here now after hundreds of thousands of years.

But, would we want to do dangerous, dirty, unfulfilling and undignified work, for shitty pay? Who will sign up to clean toilets, sweep roads, carry worksite debris to the skip, stand behind the till at the gas station or convenience store 8+ hours a day, answer hundreds of phone calls a day just to give people information they can find online? Obviously, where we can't automate, or otherwise relieve people of the need to do this kind of work, and many hands will not make light work of the situation (e.g. instead of having janitors let's some percentage of the office staff clean up during the last hour of the day, like how we take turns doing the dishes at home), and we actually need sufficient people doing this kind of work full tim, then clearly these jobs need to have rewards sufficient to have people sign up to them. There won't be a need for as many as their are nowz and those who do sign up will be more efficient for the fact they're there of their own Accord and can quit any time they want.

It will be a real challenge to transition to this kind of incentive structure under the current incentives of capitalism (not to many how fucked up it makes people's mental health and moral sentiment towards "the other" as competitors rather than collaborators), and ultimately monetary economics will probably need a significant overhaul and it may not even necessary in the long run. There may be better ways to distribute resources that still has mechanisms for rewarding hard work and determination, unique talent or passion, risk taking, etc. to a degree that nobody will resent such people for their success.

But the way I see it, this is what progress looks like. It's working toward this kind of world that should drive our social and political engagements. I want you to be free - truly free - to life your best life. And not so that your doing means others have to be enslaved. That should make you miserable at every moment.

I don't trust UBI because I don't trust the average person to manage their free time and money carefully. This just feels like a road to boredom, followed by doing stupid shit, including drugs.

Anyone who have taken a month+ old vacation probably knows what I'm talking about. There comes a point where you just (unintentionally) start degrading yourself because there is no purpose in your life, whether by playing videogames all day or substance abuse

It's even worse when you realize most homeless have psychological or physical problems that made them homeless in the first place, and throwing money at them is likely not going to extend their lives if you know what I meant, or fix said problems.

UBI is a bad idea because it reinforces and relies on the capitalist idea of money. We should make basic resources themselves free, like a supermarket you can walk into and take stuff without paying, rather than giving people points to buy stuff that costs points.