Guaranteed basic income to every citizen, whether or not they are employed to ensure their survival and that they live in a dignified, humane way, preventing poverty, illness, homelessness, reducing crime, encouraging higher education and learning vocations as well as helping society become more prosperous as a whole.Ā
Wow. Forget raising the minimum wage. This is much much better idea.
The minimum wage could actually drop if we had basic income.
But Americans would never go for it. Miserably slogging through 12 hour days and having businesses open 24/7 is too engrained in our culture.
āBUT WHERE WILL THE GOVERNMENT GET THE MONEY?ā screamed Joe Schmoe, slamming a meaty fist onto the table and getting mouth-froth all over the front of his greying tank top. āYou libt*rds all think money grows on TREES!! HAHA!ā āBut where will people get the incentive to work?!ā Mindy Bindy cried, flapping her hands in front of her face. Sheād had a fear of the unemployed lollygagging about ever since she was a child and her mother told her to be afraid of the unemployed lollygagging about. āYou think people should get paid forĀ nothing? I workĀ hard for my money!ā
āBut who will serve me?ā grumbled Marty McMoneybags. āWho will make me feel important? Who will do my laundry and cook my food and stand in front of me wearing a plastic smile while I take out all my stressābecause IĀ doĀ have a lot of stress, you know, being this rich isĀ stressfulāon them?ā He paused and straightened out the piles of hundred dollar bills on the desk in front of him, then raised his two watery, outraged eyes up to the Heavens. āLord, if there are no poor people, how will I know that IāmĀ rich??ā
I laughed. This is perfect! Well said!
The thing is, while Iām sure you could scrape up a few people whoād be willing to just float by on a guaranteed minimum income? For most people the choice to work would be a no-brainer. āHmmm. I can get by on 33k a year, or I can take that part time job and make 48kā¦ enough to move to a better apartment, maybe take the family on vacation. Sold.ā Hell, most people would want to work simply because it gives one a sense of dignity and something to do with oneās time. (Speaking as someone whoās been unemployed, on extended sick leave, etc. in her time, the boredom and sense of isolation that comes with not having a job is almost as bad as the humiliation of having to depend on other people for oneās survival.)
And with this system, part-time jobs and ānon-skilledā jobs would be much more readily available because nobody would need to work two or three jobs just to stay afloat!
Which would ALSO mean that employers and customers couldnāt shamelessly exploit employees the way they can today, because if losing a job werenāt necessarily a financial disaster, more people would be willing to walk out on jobs where they werenāt being treated with dignity.
And if this also applies to students (and it should) then student loans would become much less of a problem, and fewer people would flunk out of school because of having to juggle studies and work.
Far fewer people would be forced to stay with abusive partners, parents or roommates because they couldnāt afford to move out.
And the thing is, all those people who suddenly had money? Theyād be spending it. Theyād be getting all the stuff they canāt afford now - new clothes, books, toys, locally-produced food, car repairs - and with each purchase money would flow BACK to the government, because VAT, also income tax.
The unemployed and/or disabled wouldnāt need special support any more - which would also mean the government could fire however many admins who are currently engaged in humiliating - *cough* making sure those people arenāt getting money they donāt deserve. Same for medical benefits and pensions. And Iām no legal scholar, but I somehow imagine less financial desperation would lead to less petty crime, and hence less need for police and security everywhere?
TL;DR Doomie thinks this is a good idea, laughs at those who protest.
reblogging for more top commentary
They tried something like this out in Canada as a sort of social experiment, called Mincome. What they found was that, on the whole, people continued to work about as much as they did before. Only new mothers and teenagers worked substantially less hours.Ā
But wait, thereās more. Because parents were spending just a little more time at home and involved with their families, test scores increased. Because teens didnāt have to work to support their families, drop-out rates decreased. Crime rates, hospital visits, psychiatric hospitalizations and domestic abuse rates all dropped, as well.Ā More adults pursued higher education. Those who continued to work reported more job flexibility and more opportunity to choose employment they preferred.
Basically, now you can go prove to your asshole family members that society wonāt collapse without poor people for you to feel better than.
Wow.Ā No shoes with holes and no winter boots without insulation when I was a kid.Ā No house without a bathroom (only an outhouse and the kitchen sink for baths) and with a coal stove for heat.Ā No scrubbing clothes on a washboard in a tin tub and putting them through a wringer.Ā No walking to a cow trough for water.Ā No living four people in one room in a welfare hotel.Ā (No, Iām making none of this up.Ā This was my teenager-hood.)
No being unable to pay college loans and taxes.Ā No watching friends flounder because they canāt find work.
I actually believe people would keep working for the most part.Ā Itās too boring not to, and prices will go up once people have that money.Ā $33,000 will only go so far.Ā But theyād be able to choose.Ā They wouldnāt have to cling to jobs that depress them to the point of depression.Ā They could try for the jobs they always wanted, that werenāt āpractical.ā
And people like Walmart, Papa Johnās, Amazon, and MacDonaldās would have to pay and decent wage, give decent hours, and stop treating employees like dirt.
YES TO ALL OF THIS.
This was a while ago you guys... we voted, and the majority of people refused the minimum income. Our government isnāt working on it anymore, and they were against it anyways. It was the people who started this law project. We missed this opportunity
