Universal Basic Income via abolishment of all other welfare

originally posted by: ScepticScot
a reply to: Gyo01

A few thoughts on the article.

Friedman was not the first to propose a basic income as stated in the article.

The author is a member of a right wing think tank so this is hardly a call to man the barricades for a communist revolution.

The proposal seems based largely on the idea that robots are going to steal all our jobs. This may be true one day but we are still a long long way from that. Certain jobs are risk from automation but that certainly dosent mean there are not a lot of jobs that require people to do.

Also what about people who have a higher required minimum income, for example people with more severe disabilities. One size does not fit all even at the bottom of the income scale.

Yes, I will never compare myself to a man with no legs... but I've always wondered if we could trade places would he beg for his wheelchair back? It's a puzzle I do not like to think about often.

For terminal disabilities, I know what you mean I think. Well, I guess insurance would still be a business...
I'm gonna go all conspiracy, heh, but they might have to synchronize a price fall in pills/treatment to sick folk? We all know the meds take pennies to manufacture after they are discovered... and the method(scientist) was discovered of from grants.

I hope this isn't too far off topic... it's opinionated.

originally posted by: 0zzymand0s
You guys crack me up. It's an article, from a reputable source, which explains how abolishing all current forms of assistance, including social security (and the numerous Federal and State agencies which oversee these programs), and replacing that with a $13000 grant for each CITIZEN / year, saves us nearly a trillion dollars by 2020. Better still, it is an idea that has support across the political spectrum, from the "libruls," to the libertarians, and the knee-jerk at the old Bigfoot Emporium is "you're crazy!" "what are you smoking?" and "That will never work cos' human nature, trololol!"

Where is the money going to come from, my ass. Read the damn article..

You do realize with a fiat currency You need some sort of currency expansion to keep the economy operating right? If You had no form of currency expansion the rich would eventually get every dollar and the economy would stop. So to avoid deflation You have to print money and as far as I am concerned if everyone is treated equally with no special perks then it's a whole hell of a lot fairer then what We have now.

a reply to: Aazadan

I don't know where You get SSI, Medicare, & Medicade only costing 44% of the budget because when I looked the other day it was 77% which would put it up to 2.6 trillion.

originally posted by: jkm1864
a reply to: Aazadan

I don't know where You get SSI, Medicare, & Medicade only costing 44% of the budget because when I looked the other day it was 77% which would put it up to 2.6 trillion.

It was either this chart, or a similar one
upload.wikimedia.org...

And I was including additional programs beyond those three. What you might be confusing for 77% is welfare+mandatory spending which also includes interest on the debt, defense, and a few other programs that can't legally be reduced.

a reply to: JinMI

I've had the unfortunate chance of meeting scammers. The average person has no idea the number of people that sell $200 food assistance cards for $100-$150 cash .

a reply to: ScepticScot

Noted. But, i think we are closer to automation than you believe. Not something i can prove, even to myself, just a "gut feeling."