How do you feel about UBI?

[Anonymous]

There will come a time when AI evolves to a point where it has the ability to replace almost every job done by a human. At that point the only viable path for humans to survive would be UBI and universal healthcare.

How many years away is the U.S. from UBI?

[Anonymous]

So I completely disagree with your premise ... but, putting that aside, I think the introduction of UBI would cause the cost of everything to rise in proportion to UBI and people still couldn't afford to live.

Better plan would be to provide basics for free (food, housing, medical, education) and let people work for whatever extras they want over and above that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I completely disagree with your premise ... but, putting that aside, I think the introduction of UBI would cause the cost of everything to rise in proportion to UBI and people still couldn't afford to live.

Better plan would be to provide basics for free (food, housing, medical, education) and let people work for whatever extras they want over and above that.

There is no difference between "providing basics for free" and "providing equal amount of money for basics"?

Cost of everything will not go up indefinitely, demand is not indefinitely, eventually there will be balance. Providing money is better, so that people can choose what to buy.

Regardless of UBI or providing basic for free, it is still welfare (public housing, Medicaid, food stamp, a little cash assistance, etc), just expand current welfare system to cover more people.

[Anonymous]

I am fine with it.

[Anonymous]

Ubi and a capitalist society would lead to inflation to meet the UBI allowances. Companies need consumers to make a profit and then increase returns for shareholders and stock prices. While this is the basis of our economic growth little is available for the regular person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I completely disagree with your premise ... but, putting that aside, I think the introduction of UBI would cause the cost of everything to rise in proportion to UBI and people still couldn't afford to live.

Better plan would be to provide basics for free (food, housing, medical, education) and let people work for whatever extras they want over and above that.

There is no difference between "providing basics for free" and "providing equal amount of money for basics"?

Cost of everything will not go up indefinitely, demand is not indefinitely, eventually there will be balance. Providing money is better, so that people can choose what to buy.

Oh dear. There is absolutely a difference. And under your plan, costs go up until they meet the amount provided by UBI: that's where they'll find balance.

I am fully in support of the "just give poor people money" solution in our current economy, vs government cheese. But in your fantasy where there are no jobs, it doesn't work without price controls.

[Anonymous]

Bad for the soul - humans are meant to work, have a purpose, and be productive. Communities with large numbers of nonworking people tend to have problems with crime and addiction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There will come a time when AI evolves to a point where it has the ability to replace almost every job done by a human. At that point the only viable path for humans to survive would be UBI and universal healthcare.

How many years away is the U.S. from UBI?

If we continue down the A.I. path, then it's very likely.

There is also the path of everyone using robots to go to work for them. Robot slaves if you will. The richer you get, the more robots you own and more money you can make. Keep investing in more robots and grow your empire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ubi and a capitalist society would lead to inflation to meet the UBI allowances. Companies need consumers to make a profit and then increase returns for shareholders and stock prices. While this is the basis of our economic growth little is available for the regular person.

You don't understand basic economics. Not surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bad for the soul - humans are meant to work, have a purpose, and be productive. Communities with large numbers of nonworking people tend to have problems with crime and addiction.

Yeah - this is my thought too. Obviously I’m not opposed to providing for peoples’ needs (within reason) if there are no jobs to be had, but I feel like a lot could go wrong with a huge chunk of the population just sitting around all day.

Personally, I don’t even know what I’d do. If I were super wealthy, I’d travel, go to the spa, take fitness classes, etc. all day but I wouldn’t really have funds to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bad for the soul - humans are meant to work, have a purpose, and be productive. Communities with large numbers of nonworking people tend to have problems with crime and addiction

I agree that most people are meant to and want to work to provide for themselves and families. Which is mostly why, as well as the significant environmental harm, I am against AI in most settings.

What do you recommend with AI being positioned to take over every entry level/non skilled role?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There will come a time when AI evolves to a point where it has the ability to replace almost every job done by a human. At that point the only viable path for humans to survive would be UBI and universal healthcare.

How many years away is the U.S. from UBI?

So in your vision, who exactly are we paying with our UBI dollars?

[Anonymous]

We tried UBI on a very large scale during the pandemic. It caused massive inflation of every kind of asset, completely refuting the claims of the Magical Monetary Theory fools.

[Anonymous]

So I completely disagree with your premise ... but, putting that aside, I think the introduction of UBI would cause the cost of everything to rise in proportion to UBI and people still couldn't afford to live.

This. UBI isn't free and will just make everything worse. If my landlord knows that I have an extra $X every month, I fully expect that my rent will increase by some high percentage of X. We saw this during COVID with stimulus checks. It made supply chain shortages worse and increased prices for everyone.

I'm not concerned about unemployment due to AI yet. Mass unemployment due to automation has been predicted for the last couple hundred years. Jobs have changed, but it hasn't happened yet.

If/when this becomes a real concern, population control is probably a better solution than mass welfare, but I see no reason to attempt to solve a problem that does not yet exist. Let's wait and see what happens.

[Anonymous]

Won’t UBI just lead to massive inflation like the pandemic payments did?