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When talking to people who dislike UBI about UBI, they'll often say both that 'people need a purpose in life' and that 'nobody will work if they get free money'. (lemm.ee)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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Those seem incompatible to me.

(UBI means Universal Basic Income, giving everyone a basic income, for free)

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[–] 54 points 2 years ago (3 children)

UBI on it's own is not a problem for me. Where I take issue is when politicians say "we'll give you cash instead of these social safety net programs". I think you have to have a mix of UBI and social safety net programs. It's all about raising the floor of the lowest living conditions we'll allow and right now, in America at least, we have too many rich people and too many poor people. A UBI of $1000/month doesn't help a person stuck in an ICU for months at a time and will just discharge to a SNF/LTAC facility.

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    UBI would not replace the need for universal healthcare.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Andrew Yang famously ran on a UBI platform, his plan was very clear on that issue, but he was very vague on his healthcare plan https://2020.yang2020.com/policies/medicare-for-all/

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yeah. I supported Yang to help popularize the idea but he’s just a wolf in sheep’s skin trying to get rich.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    How so? I canvased for Yang in 2019, but after he dropped, I kinda just stopped thinking about him. I know he started the Forward Party, and he’s had some bad takes on homelessness, but how is he a wolf in sheep’s clothing? He apparently has a net worth of at least a couple million living in New York, but he’s in his 40’s, so that‘s not really that far off from normal businessmen.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    I knew Yang was a fraud from the start. It was his “you have a freedom to choose between UBI and safety social nets” that made it clear to me. Took a long fucking time for other left leaning folks to catch on. He was getting way too much attention. That’s actually why I liked Michael Brooks so much. He was one of the few at the time that saw through it

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    It's basically the Social Security plus Medicare combo like seniors in America get. It's not great or perfect but even if that's all you live on you can get by ok. The USA could just lower the ages. I know lowering the Medicare age comes and goes in the conversation about healthcare reform

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Social safety net programs are fine but unless they're universal they'll inevitably create benefit cliffs which punish people for making more money. They also cost money to administer. UBI is super cheap and easy to administer: if you're a citizen you get a check or deposit every month. Simple. You could probably manage the entire operation with less than 1000 people.

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