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Y Combinator Announces Funding For UBI-Supporting Political Candidates (latimes.com)

Most people "feel like they have great potential that is being wasted," argues Y Combinator president Sam Altman -- a Stanford dropout whose company's investments are now worth $65 billion, including Airbnb, Reddit, and Dropbox. Now an anonymous reader quote the Los Angeles Times: A wealthy young Silicon Valley venture capitalist hopes to recruit statewide and congressional candidates and launch an affordable-housing ballot measure in 2018 because he says California's leaders are failing to address flaws in the state's governance that are killing opportunities for future generations. Sam Altman, 32, will roll out an effort to enlist candidates around a shared set of policy priorities -- including tackling how automation is going to affect the economy and the cost of housing in California -- and is willing to put his own money behind the effort. "I think we have a fundamental breakdown of the American social contract and it's desperately important that we fix it," he said. "Even if we had a very well-functioning government, it would be a challenge, and our current government functions so badly it is an extra challenge..."

Altman lays out 10 principles including lowering the cost of housing, creating single-payer healthcare, increasing clean energy use, improving education, reforming taxes and rebuilding infrastructure. He has few specific policy edicts, and floats proposals that will generate controversy, such as creating a universal basic income for all Americans in an effort to equalize opportunity, public funding for the media and increasing taxes on property that is owned by foreigners, is unoccupied or has been "flipped" by investors seeking a quick return on an investment.

Altman argues that he wants to "ensure that everyone benefits from the coming changes," and specifically highlights the idea of a Universal Basic Income. Altman writes that "If it turns out to be a good policy, I could imagine passing a law that puts it into effect when the GDP per capita doubles. This could help cushion the transition to a post-automation world."

195 comments

  1. Slippery slope to communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Giving people a free income makes the fat and lazy. It's a slippery slope to communism. Forget about it.

    1. Re:Slippery slope to communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The UBI dreamers wont hear that. They are too busy being clueless about actual, real world human nature.

      Protip: you can receive all of the education in the world, and still be a damn fool. (See below)

    2. Re:Slippery slope to communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1
      People do extremely well under communism. Generally the most powerful and well connected. It's a war at the top echelons of society. The underclass suffers, but are told that they'll be more equal. This is true to the extent in that instead of maybe a dozen graduations, you end up with two, one small super elite and the rest poor (but hey, equal).

      I've seen it. I've lived it

    3. Re:Slippery slope to communism by reboot246 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Don't confuse slashdotters with facts. This place leans so far left it's about to fall over.

    4. Re:Slippery slope to communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This, plus the Republicans want to make us have to work. That is slavery.

    5. Re: Slippery slope to communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, goddamn it! We can't sit idly by while crazy commies try to turn California into a European socialist nanny state! Where are our torches and pitchforks? And who's got one of those newfangled horseless carriages? I hear you can go so fast in them that you suffocate!

    6. Re:Slippery slope to communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Reagan proved deficits don't matter. Congress has the authority to simply allocate new money. Lincoln did it, printing $480 million greenbacks. The Greenback Party won lots of seats in the 1870s and passed an inflation bill through Congress to print more greenbacks but Grant vetoed.

    7. Re:Slippery slope to communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fat and lazy peopel are not a problem, when there aren't any jobs for them to have anyway.

      It also may be the easiest way to get them to stop reproducing: having kids is hard work

    8. Re: Slippery slope to communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok you've said what won't work, where is your solution to the problem? Offer a solution or stfu.

    9. Re:Slippery slope to communism by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      Fat and lazy peopel are not a problem, when there aren't any jobs for them to have anyway.

      Yet we are in a full employment economy, and the rate of people being replaced by technology is going down, since most the the easy-to-automate manufacturing jobs are already gone, and service jobs are proving much harder to automate.

      UBI is a solution to a theoretical problem that doesn't actually exist.

    10. Re: Slippery slope to communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What lefty made up or created problem are you dreaming of?

    11. Re:Slippery slope to communism by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Giving people a free income makes the fat and lazy.

      So we should ban capital-derived income? And inheritance over some threshold?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    12. Re:Slippery slope to communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you think his description is valid only for former communists states, think again. And he is talking out of his ass anyway....I do love to meet in person all those who have "lived it"....turns out most did not. Because I really did, it is always funny.....hey I remember seeing a piece here from that Google dude - Sergey? - exposing the horrors of the regime which he "lived"...only he was 4 when his parents left...yhea!

    13. Re:Slippery slope to communism by gbjbaanb · · Score: 0

      The idea is not so much giving them an income, but replacing the bloated and inefficient welfare systems with a basic income - hint: basic.

      It means you get enough to survive without much luxury, and if you want more (as everyone does) then you go out and earn some more. Any job paying anything is a net benefit to you.

      right now, crap jobs are not taken up because it pays more to sit on welfare. UBI fixes that.

      It also gives another factor in that some things do not pay much at all, eg if you're trying to start something, or be an artist, then this enables those things to occur. Society can be improved by this. And, as almost everyone gets it, it means we are more productive as a society as a whole.

      UBI might sound a bit left-wing loony stuff, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Of course, if it ever gets implemented the lefties won't know which way their heads should spin, as it does have to replace welfare.

      The only problem with it is that it costs a lot of money to implement, but considering welfare programmes already have reached massive levels of expenditure anyway, its become a possibility now

    14. Re:Slippery slope to communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes

    15. Re:Slippery slope to communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Left? There's a shit ton of alt-right and libertarian down here.

    16. Re:Slippery slope to communism by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 1

      Left? There's a shit ton of alt-right and libertarian down here.

      True about the Libertarians (probably the second largest /. group), not very true about alt-right. However my $0.02 is that the largest group would be left leaning. Certainly culturally if not also economically.

    17. Re:Slippery slope to communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The idea is not so much giving them an income, but replacing the bloated and inefficient welfare systems with a basic income - hint: basic.

      How will you enforce that it stays "basic"?

      Suppose that the news does a bunch of stories about kids whose parents don't feed them properly. They argue that the government ought to give those kids food. Today, the debate would be about if we should spend money to feed those kids, and whose taxes to raise to pay for it. With UBI, the argument would be that the UBI is just too low, and we need to raise it for everyone. Suddenly, many more people will "care" about money for those kids (and themselves).

      Once you set the precedent that being a human entitles you to have the government give you something, people will demand more until most people have no use for more. This might work for water, because at some point people don't want more water. It sort-of works for education, because people generally stop caring about education past undergrad. It can work for food for kids, because at some point the kids can't eat any more. There is no practical limit to the amount of money people want. Implement UBI, and the system will fall down the slope into communism as people insist that "basic" covers more and more luxury.

    18. Re: Slippery slope to communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok so how exactly is that different than what we have now in the US? I seen it, I lived it and it sucks for a majority of people. Wage slaving and still coming home broke is doing nothing for us. If having a few guys on top is the biggest issue but I don't have to worry about paying my wages to the capitalist mafia - then I don't see a problem.

    19. Re: Slippery slope to communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Easy, since the basic income is enough, the parents re either incompetent or criminal. Either way you take the kids away if they can't get their act together after a warning and parenting class or two.

  2. Slightly Tilted by JimSadler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Much of what he wants is good and maybe possible. However holding back automation is 100% wrong headed. People have been trying to hold back automation for centuries. In fact automation can lower the price of housing in a huge way. And yes, we will have social unrest and some tribulations as humans become obsolete in employment situations. However that very same automation that provides homes and miraculous health care is also the same automation that will eliminate your jobs. In the past it was the guy who shoveled dirt or coal that became jobless due to automation. now it is book keepers, accountants, lawyers and even doctors and they tend to have far more social power to resist changes. But the very reason that automation will win is the same reason the crackpot notions about hiding cures for cancer exist. We are supposed to believe that a doctor can cure a cancer when he wants to but there is so much money that he will never do it. We are asked to believe that doctor will watch his parents, his kids his wife or even his own life to end from cancer when he has that secret cure at hand at all times. and that is exactly why doctors will yield to automated medical care. It is also the reason that lawyers will support automated medical care and you can bet your last penny that insurance companies love quick, easy and inexpensive cures for any problem. In other words there are huge numbers of people hitting the go fast button on automation and they tend to be the bright and highly paid people among us. The worst thing we are against is not exactly regulation but more of allowing a permissions based society. In other words you build a home and government and others will tell you just how you can build that home. The idea of permits or permissions allows so much abuse of individuals that absolutely everything turns into a money issue with a whole bunch of people feeding off the side effects of those permissions.

    1. Re:Slightly Tilted by sethstorm · · Score: 0

      However holding back automation is 100% wrong headed.

      Not at all. Given that it is destroying at a faster pace than people can adapt, it is long since time to hold it back to a human-tolerable pace.

      --
      Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
    2. Re:Slightly Tilted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Slowing technology" at this point seems nearly synonymous with "slowing exponential corporate profits", and little else. The U.S. middle class hasn't improved in income or quality of life in 50 years.

      You make an interesting point. Close consideration should probably be given to the Amish and Mennonite communities--intentionally self-frozen at around 1800's technology, and probably more content and economically stable than 90% of the country.

    3. Re:Slightly Tilted by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seems like UBI is one of those ways that people are trying adapt. If someone is completely incapable of working or contributing economically, it makes far more sense to give them a subsistence wage so they stay home instead of resorting to crime. Increasing productivity through automation results in more overall wealth, probably to the point where a UBI becomes possible because the cost becomes more and more insignificant.

      Look at the world we live in today where a large and growing part of society isn't working and not by and large starving in the streets for it. Productivity increases have made that possible whereas historically most countries practiced slavery because productivity was so low that paying wages to all laborers wasn't feasible and few would be willing to freely perform that labor for what would be given as wages.

      If you think people need to be employed or engaged in some type of work, just have people getting the UBI who aren't employed (or somehow paying in to the system) do community service. Ten hours a week or keeping parks clean, etc. isn't a hard ask if it lets a person continue living.

    4. Re: Slightly Tilted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should move to an Amish town then.

    5. Re:Slightly Tilted by gweihir · · Score: 2

      Oh, it is. If you hold back automation domestically, it will just mean things get moved abroad where it is not held back. That is much, much worse. You can create a short-term straw-fire with attempts to hold back automation though (with a really nasty price to be paid later) and that seems to be what the current US administration is all about.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  3. 'equalize opportunity' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You mean like Harrison Bergeron?

    1. Re:'equalize opportunity' by GonzoPhysicist · · Score: 1

      That story was about equalizing ability, not opportunity

      --
      horror vacui
  4. Re:Episcopal Church Controlled by Satan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jesus? There's something not quite right about that guy. Have you seen his pictures? He looks like he might be one of those trannies everybody's been talking about.

  5. If they care about people by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    Hey behind Medicare For All. That's real. UBI of still pie in the sky.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:If they care about people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      sir, you make no sense

  6. Re:Sure sounds good UP FRONT but... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    rich bankers & we ALL KNOW who "THEY" are, don't we?

    ooo, I know this one! It's the Jews, right?

  7. "are now worth $65 billion" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    65 billion imaginary dollars.

    No one knows the true worth of a company until you go to sell it. How much would Reddit and Dropbox sell for if there were buyers? Not much. AirBnb? Not much more.

    If he sold all his companies, right, now, he wouldn't get anything close to 65 billion.

  8. Talk about... by doctorvo · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Altman lays out 10 principles including lowering the cost of housing, creating single-payer healthcare, increasing clean energy use, improving education, reforming taxes and rebuilding infrastructure

    Talk about billionaires corrupting politics.

  9. Re:A UBI... by UID30 · · Score: 0

    Exactly. People who advocate for UBI don't math. At the end of the day, it is nothing more than another welfare funded by the middle class. The average american pays ~$10k/yr in income taxes to fund the current big government programs. To fund a UBI of $12k/yr/citizen (a drop in the bucket for cost of living), that same average american would have to pay $22k/yr in income taxes ... but then get $12 of it back. Those citizens who pay less in income tax benefit more. Welfare.

    When this discussion comes up among friends, I usually deflect to discuss how corporate america keeps its war chests of money overseas in tax havens ... and suggest that maybe if they were paying their taxes like responsible citizens then maybe things wouldn't be so crappy. Then ask them when they are going to upgrade to the next IPhone...

    --
    "Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever." - Napoleon Bonaparte
  10. The investor class is powerful by hwstar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Things are going to get very ugly before they get better. The investor class will not relinquish its power without a fight. These guys will fight to the bitter end. They have everything to lose. They will use their resources to keep the status quo in place. Expect the skirmishes between main street and wall street to escalate. The outcome is very hard to predict, but there will be a conflict. Best case: We are able to wrest control from the investor class, and restore democracy. Worst case: Think Second Civil War, Robots killing citizens en-masse, biological agents released, or US military thermonuclear bombs targeted intra-US.

    1. Re:The investor class is powerful by yuriklastalov · · Score: 1

      Don't forget the quickly fermenting race war! CW2 is gonna be off the fuckin' chain.

      We've already got blacks marching around with shirts like "Fuck White People" and shouting "Kill Whitey", it's only a small matter of time before that sentiment takes its inevitable violent turn. Once that happens, the "Nazis" will come out to plat and thus the Communists (aka Antifa) must fight back. Black guerrilla fighters blowing up buildings Al Qaeda style, and hell, even the Islamic terrorists would probably take advantage of the chaos although most of them aren't quite smart enough to manage to attack the US.
        Hey, at least it'll break Capitalisims back, amirite? Cuz that's some fucking change I can believe in!

    2. Re:The investor class is powerful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " Best case: We are able to wrest control from the investor class, and restore democracy"

      Socialism by any other name is still socialism. And if you think that that is anything to wish for, you are a bloody fool.

    3. Re:The investor class is powerful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lots to lose here for you, right? Unbridled capitalism is the root cause of the problems in this country. A little socialism mixed in to balance things would go a long way towards resolving this problem.

  11. No jobs where housing is cheap by t0qer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The real issue isn't a housing shortage, the real issue here is there are no jobs where housing is cheap.

    There is plenty of cheap housing in California if you're willing to live anywhere but the bay area. Modesto, Stockton, Hollister, Tracy come to mind first. Problem is guys like Sam Altman want to live in Woodside, Atherton, or Los Altos. People like Sam Altman do not want to commute any more than 12 minutes to work. People like Sam Altman would never lower themselves to live in any of the aforementioned cities, much less start a company with decent paying wages in them.

    We always hear the excuse, "WELL THE GOOD TALENT DOESN'T LIVE IN THOSE CITIES!" Really? Because I could have sworn we have over 100k H1b visa holders that were willing to live anywhere but where they came from. I could have sworn a lot of these folks would think that Stockton, even with it's high crime rate is a much better, much more civilized city than where they came from.

    I've been preaching this for a while, seems like it would solve so many issues. Less traffic, less economic depression, and a foot up for people living in those cities. It's not like Atherton, Los Altos, or Woodside need anymore money. Give people a job, they won't need UBI.

    1. Re:No jobs where housing is cheap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > People like Sam Altman would never lower themselves to live in any of the aforementioned cities...

      Um... why the fuck would someone who can afford to _not_ live (and even raise a family!) in those cities live in them?

      It's not about "lowering" or "humbling" oneself, it's that there are better options available to you and you'd be an _idiot_ to not take them.

      Go look through the monthly "Who's Hiring?" threads on Hacker News (news.ycombinator.com) posted by the user "whoishiring", or look around on Angel List (angel.co) and you'll notice that at _least_ 10% of open tech jobs in the US _welcome_ remote workers (and many, many more will consider it for strong candidates). Those people in Modesto, Stockton, Hollister or Tracy? They can fetch a _significant_ percentage (often 100%) of a San Francisco tech worker salary while working from their cheap-ass home in Boringsville, CA.

      While UBI will be given to _everyone_, UBI isn't really for the sort of people that folks like Altman are hiring; it's for the sort of people out on the streets of San Francisco, the sort of people who are out of their mind because of Alzheimer's, the sort of people who can't ever work again because of a crippling off-the-job accident.

      > The real issue isn't a housing shortage...

      It _really_ fucking is. I guess you don't pay attention to the stats from your home in Boringsville, but the municipalities in the SFBA area are _absolutely_ failing to build housing to meet demand. For at least the past decade in San Francisco, the city population has grown by FIVE people for every ONE new unit of housing constructed. The numbers in other cities in the SFBA tell a similar story.

      There is _really_ a housing construction shortage up here in the Greater Metro Area. It's not clear if it's all a ploy to make landowners happy with the ever-increasing on-paper valuation of their land and property or what, but it's _very_ real.

    2. Re:No jobs where housing is cheap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Living in the middle of nowhere is trading lower cost of living for depressed wages and a continuous tax on your time. Everything is delayed graduation in the middle of nowhere. I spent 8 years in the middle of nowhere. I burned gasoline like a fiend driving around to get to everywhere I needed to go. Never again. The middle of nowhere is a tar pit. Once you get stuck in one, you cannot afford to leave.

  12. Re:A UBI... by BlueStrat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...how corporate america keeps its war chests of money overseas in tax havens ... and suggest that maybe if they were paying their taxes like responsible citizens then maybe things wouldn't be so crappy.

    If US corporate tax rates and other US corporate/business legal/regulatory-compliance costs were more on-par with foreign rates & costs, more of that money would stay in the US to be taxed for a net gain in revenue to public coffers and deposited in US financial institutions which provide capital for home loans, car loans, small business loans, etc etc.

    The government is more focused on using taxation & regulation as social-engineering tools, not as *just* a tool to collect revenue to operate the government. The couldn't use tax & regulatory laws and policies to dis- or encourage societal behaviors if their taxes, etc were tied to sticking to the Laffer Curve.

    "Revenue" is *not* the primary motivation behind federal tax & regulatory laws and policies. Control & manipulation of the population is what motivates and guides federal tax & regulatory laws & policies. Revenue generation is secondary at best.

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  13. Re:But does it work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The ideology is that ppl are free to pursue their happiness. Should we have tested the Declaration of Independence before rashly committing so much blood and treasure? Emancipation is too risky; we must do experiments to see what will happen to the price of cotton before giving slaves freedom.

  14. Re:A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Why is the dollar now stronger after the Fed "printed" trillions to save world markets in 2008 and after? Why has Covered Interest Parity been consistently violated since 2008? Future dollars are worth more in world financial markets than today's dollars. The more dollars there are, the stronger the dollar gets.

    We should fund a basic income on the Fed's balance sheet at zero taxpayer cost. Fix inflation the same way the private sector does: create more money. The rich put money in money-market funds that fund financial innovations that create money from thin air and return part of that created money to the money-market fund holders. Then they use that created money to buy houses ever-inflating in price. They sell the house to someone else who has created money in his money-market account, and the cycle continues. Housing price inflation is met with financial market money creation. We can use the same idea to index incomes to price rises and thus guarantee that real income purchasing power will not decrease.

  15. Re:But does it work? by Kohath · · Score: 1, Insightful

    At others' expense. Apparently you're in the "idealogy supersedes evidence" camp.

  16. Re:But does it work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Rights supercede experimentation. It's only at others' expense in the sense that the banks' toxic assets were made good at the Fed's expense, which made the dollar stronger. Therefore, fund basic income entirely on the Fed's balance sheet and index all incomes to price rises to eliminate nominal inflation. Win-win.

    We should be constructing simulations of a Fed-funded basic income and test out virtually indexation schemes. But the idea of a basic income is not testable because it relies on a judgment about how people choose to live their lives.

  17. Why don't you just say: Bribes for Dems by guruevi · · Score: 1

    Funding for political candidates, really, that's what we call bribes now. At least lobbying and election contributions supposedly go towards specific issues or election funds, these bozos are just cutting the crap and funding politicians.

    I don't want any collection of rich people basically buying out the entire candidate pool, at least right now we have our pick from rich people and even though they are further removed from our world than we care to admit, at least they are somewhat of a pick. Y Combinators is proposing the political system within Hunger Games.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  18. Re:A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The more dollars there are, the stronger the dollar gets.

    Slap whoever told you this, and then slap yourself twice for being stupid enough to listen to such tripe.

    Math, Motherfucker! Do you compute it!?

    The rest isn't even worth reading. Typical Leftist Marxist/Collectivist economic fantasies and outright lies.

    This kind of obvious BS insults everyone's intelligence and is one of the reasons the Democrats/Progressives have gotten tossed out of office on their collective ears all across the US recently.

    But, *do* carry on!

    "Didi mou!! Didi mou!!" [snicker]

  19. Re:What nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The market throttles progress by censoring free knowledge transfer. The market incentivizes selling refrigerators to Eskimos. The market is orders of magnitude worse than government in coercion, and buys up government with market-created credit dollars to add to its coercive power. We should use public money to fund a basic income and link incomes to price rises to no one's assets are seized.

  20. Re:Trophies for Everyone! by BlueStrat · · Score: 1, Troll

    [Trophies for Everyone!]

    Get PAID for EXISTING!!

    Yay socialism.... :-\

    The Gods of the Copybook Headings

    AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
    I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
    Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
    And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

    We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
    That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
    But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
    So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

    We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
    Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
    But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
    That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

    With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
    They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
    They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
    So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

    When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
    They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
    But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
    And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

    On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
    (Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
    Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
    And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

    In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
    By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
    But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
    And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

    Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
    And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
    That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
    And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

    As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
    There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
    That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
    And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

    And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
    When all men are paid for

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  21. Re:But does it work? by skam240 · · Score: 2

    Well i think a good start on that is getting a few people elected who will actually talk about that. Right now UBI is outside our political mainstream.

    --
    I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
  22. Re:Defining principles of socialism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Markets would have taken everyone's money in 2008, but the Fed gave them unlimited liquidity. Note that the Fed is not taxpayer funded, so public money creation rescued world markets. Thus, use public money creation, already market-tested and the dollar got stronger, to fund basic income.

  23. Re:A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    > Those citizens who pay less in income tax benefit more. Welfare.

    And those who pay more (such as those with $500k/year taxable incomes) pay more and benefit less.

    That's the point.

    Social Security and Medicaid are two of the greatest programs this country has. You won't find a senior who disagrees.

    I guess you've never seen crushing poverty up close?

  24. Re:A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This may be the dumbest post I have seen in a few days.

    I did the math on UBI and found scrapping existing welfare, EI and veteran payments in favour for one UBI program would not only supply more income to more people, it would actually save the government money.

    UBI is not magic, the money doesn't just come from the air, it comes from taxes. To pay for UBI the government merely needs to shift taxes to apply to wherever the money currently is. In other words, people who are making profits end up footing the bill for the people they laid off to make those profits.

    The national debt is likely to go down, not up, if UBI is implemented because it saves money in the long run. Not just by unifying programs, but by reducing social housing, medical and emergency responder costs which are a result of poverty.

  25. Or maybe instead by skam240 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Or maybe you dont have a strong grasp on what UBI is for or how it would work.

    What it is for: a future where automation is cutting large numbers of people out of work. While there have always been people who have lost their jobs to automation the worry now is that robotics may be replacing manual labor almost entirely in the future. What are the manual laborers in this country going to do if that happens? Furthermore, advances in "ai" threaten many traditionally well paying jobs which makes the problems even worse.

    How UBI works: UBI isnt as expensive as you make out. With UBI there's no unemployment payouts, food stamps, or any other number of social programs along with the large bureaucracies needed to make them work. While that money saved wont cover all the costs there's enough static wealth at the top even right now (let alone in a world so heavily automated) to make up the difference.

    And really, I havent heard any viable solutions to what looks like a looming labor crises that isnt "let them all starve" or UBI

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    1. Re:Or maybe instead by guruevi · · Score: 1

      Not sure, what did the weavers do after the steam powered loom? Or the blacksmiths when factories started casting metals? The economy has only grown when these upheavals came. What it will bring is unknown, but UBI has been peddled during the Renaissance, Thomas Paine was a known proponent just prior the Industrial Revolution and even the US has done trials with it when computers and automation were going to render "work for pay obsolete" in the 60's and 70's.

      In the end, more people have jobs, less people are unemployed, economies boom on the back of automation, computerization and in general the world benefits.

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    2. Re:Or maybe instead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You easily gloss over a lot of unnecessary collateral damage.

    3. Re:Or maybe instead by jezwel · · Score: 1

      And really, I haven't heard any viable solutions to what looks like a looming labour crises that isn't "let them all starve" or UBI

      Seems a common problem. People waffle on about the difficulties in funding a UBI but have no imagination about a nation-state with 80+% of working age people unemployed and needing a hand-out to survive - either through government sanctioned methods or underground.

    4. Re:Or maybe instead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The difference is that when a technological advance like those in the past replaced people there were other job opportunities created and they only affected a small employment segment at a time.

      With robotics and AI, you are talking about something that can replace all of human labor and thinking within say the next generation. No job will be safe, any new jobs created could just as easily be automated away. The technology would basically make people redundant.

    5. Re:Or maybe instead by Dog-Cow · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Except that's a bunch of shit. Outside of manufacturing, there is no industry that is heavily built on robotics. The idea that this will change everywhere, practically overnight, is stupid, believed by only the most stupid people in the world.

    6. Re:Or maybe instead by Dog-Cow · · Score: 0

      Just because there might, in the far, far, far-flung future be a problem does not mean that UBI is a solution.

      You sound like the typical shit-head politician: something must be done, this is something, so do it.

    7. Re:Or maybe instead by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Indeed. This is the first time in history that machinery is not just shifting the labor to higher qualified labor, it is replacing the labor. Well, there _is_ a shift, but before it was something like 1 person shifted for 1 person working. Now it is 1 person shifted (engineers, IT experts, ...) for 10 person working before. The problem is that even dumb AI ("weak AI", i.e. automation, no intelligence) can replace an incredible number of workers. And while there are too few of the highly qualified people that are needed to keep this going, most people cannot get to that level of qualification. Not possible. And while there still is a need for, say, plumbers, electricians, etc., how many hours per month do you need one? Right. That is about the amount of people needed for those jobs in relation to the whole.

      Fact is, around 10% of the population is more than enough to keep everything going. That is even already true today, but at this time the system is hugely inefficient. Automation does not only replace workers, it removes much of that inefficiency. And there is no way to prevent that from happening.

      The whole thing comes with a huge socael problem though: We will have 3 classes of people in the future: 1. Those with essential work 2. Those with "nice to have" work and 3. Those without work. How to make sure the 3rd class is not going bonkers will be a huge challenge and giving them money to live is a rather small part of the solution. Most people cannot just watch TV all day, every day.

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    8. Re:Or maybe instead by gweihir · · Score: 2

      That is not an accurate model of what is happening now. We never ever had machinery before on the capability level that weak AI is currently reaching. At the same time, a lot of manufacturing technology is in a final state, and there is no next step, except eliminate the humans still in it.

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    9. Re:Or maybe instead by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Indeed. With that many unemployed and on minimal or no benefits, society begins to crumble fast. The economy does too, because people need to be able to buy things to keep commerce going.

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    10. Re:Or maybe instead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Umm, AI just isn't robotics. This could potentially replace a lot of knowledge based workers as well. Think white collar office jobs.

    11. Re:Or maybe instead by guruevi · · Score: 1

      The steam engine made pretty much most manual crafts obsolete in a matter of a generation. Computers made half of the desk jobs obsolete in less than that. Robots and automation will do that to high-tech manual labor and has been doing that for more than a few generations already. There will be other jobs for people that want to work, it's not like "AI" will automate every job imaginable, it's only useful for a small subset of repetitive tasks and has to be programmed and tested rather well by humans for it to be useful, Google has been working on a self-driving AI for over a decade now and that's just something that drives itself on a system that is pretty well defined by strict rules.

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    12. Re:Or maybe instead by guruevi · · Score: 0

      We have no decision making AI yet, we're far, far away from even getting to that point, I think at least 50-100 years.

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    13. Re:Or maybe instead by guruevi · · Score: 1

      Exactly what Thomas Paine said about the machines people were inventing in his time. Weak AI is weak, it needs hard sciences and programmers to even get to a point of usefulness. If manufacturers want an AI-driven manufacturing line, we need many programmers, technicians, designers both in computers, electronics and mechanics.

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    14. Re:Or maybe instead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Relax with the hyperbole. Automation isn't just robots doing manual labor. Lots of formerly white collar jobs are looking down the barrel of obsolescence, too.

    15. Re:Or maybe instead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Nonsense. Huge swaths of financial decision making (read as: trading) is now done entirely in software. Entire funds can be managed now with almost no human input. The same thing is happening in sales. Meanwhile, we're automating away the work of doctors and lawyers (presently in pretty narrow fields) with success rates that can exceed those of their human counterparts. This all really started getting traction in roughly ten years. I really don't think it's going to take another fifty to cause massive shifts in the way humans produce.

    16. Re:Or maybe instead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I guess that goes against your point. How many unemployed stock traders are there if AI is making the decisions?

    17. Re:Or maybe instead by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      just something that drives itself on a system that is pretty well defined by strict rules.

      To be fair, a system well defined by strict rules with other participants that don't follow those well defined strict rules.

  26. Re:A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > "Revenue" is *not* the primary motivation behind federal tax & laws and policies.

    Lol. Okay.

    FedGov can't get money if it doesn't tax.

    Get real.

  27. Re:A UBI... by guruevi · · Score: 1

    So if welfare so far has failed the system in both cost and abuse without lifting anyone out of abject poverty, how well do you think UBI (basically welfare for the masses) will fare in the next 50 years? If we need such overhead managing current welfare funds that apply to 90% of the population?

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  28. Re:A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The math is plain: world capital is around $1 quadrillion, inflating at around $30 trillion per year due to private sector financial "innovation" (i.e., money creation out of banker IOUs to each other). The notional assets created out of thin air by bankers, which are used as collateral and generate interest and circulate as money in the world financial system, did not devalue the dollar. Neither did the Fed's doubling of its balance sheet in a couple weeks in 2008, and its ultimate quadrupling of the balance sheet cause the dollar to devalue; the dollar got stronger. The more dollars there are, the stronger they get.

    It's like space. The more you pull on it, the more it pulls back. Dark energy accelerates the expansion of the universe.

    There are greater forces at work in markets than your naïve quantity theory of money.

  29. tax revenue neutral transfer of wealth to poor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1 government enacts UBI, funded by raising taxes on wealthy corporations with revenue > $x million
    2 poor people don't save and spend their UBI checks on goods they can afford
    3 businesses that do not serve poor people lose money while businesses that do serve poor people make more money

  30. can certainly do better that this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Just got back from another trip to Silicon Valley. Couldn't help but notice that the place has become a very expensive ghetto. Infrastructure is essentially what was there in the 70s. Everyone is stuck in traffic on the way there/back. Folks are busy flipping 40yr old poorly-designed one-two story houses to each other at staggering prices. Even the cell phone coverage sucks. Clearly, negligible amount of resources has gone into making the area as a whole better .. and this is the golden child of US as a whole and liberal-minded California...

    1. Re:can certainly do better that this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Blame Neoliberalism. Markets ruin everything.

  31. Re: Debt = slavery. Judge for yourselves by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At least you think the Israelites are cool. Otherwise that might seem like an ist diatribe.

  32. Re:A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am quoting from a post above which somehow was submitted in the wrong comment thread:

    Reagan proved deficits don't matter. Congress has the authority to simply allocate new money. Lincoln did it, printing $480 million greenbacks. The Greenback Party won lots of seats in the 1870s and passed an inflation bill through Congress to print more greenbacks but Grant vetoed.

  33. Re:A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... run out of other people's money to pay for it.

    I see: Nobody remembers 6 months ago, when politicians in the USA and other countries were complaining it's too easy for corporations to short-change their government. In the USA, the government empowers such immoral behaviour with lax enforcement and outright exemption from the law. So it will be even easier for the USA to get that 15% extra revenue to make a UBI possible; just enforce the laws already on the books.

  34. Re: Debt = slavery. Judge for yourselves by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not all of any race or religion = bad. Zionists = the problem. Jesus called them "a synagogue of Satan who says they are jews but lie" who he kicked out of the temple, descendants of the talmudic pharisee. Torah true Israelis aren't nearly as bad by a longshot. The rothchild bankers = the problem out there now behind all of it.

  35. trade, jobs, government by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    9. fair trade and fair jobs
    10. fair government

    Who decides what is fair? If everyone could agree on that answer, there wouldn't be any problems. The USA has several problems because the moment anyone suggests welfare (eg. UBI) there's a nation-wide scream of "I deserve" with the richest voices, corporations, controlling the dialogue. Such screams also hide the truth that corporations pay, in practice, a lower rate of tax than real people.

  36. Does this count as buying votes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think they're basically saying that they're going to support Zuckerburg's run for president in the next election.

  37. Altman versus Ford by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sam Altman is an idiot. What happened to entrepreneurs like Henry Ford, who promoted technology that made men more productive? Ford's assembly line workers earned enough money to buy the cars they manufactured. That's how the industrial revolution helped to build wealth and prosperity for all. Altman is telling people they are worthless so they need to have money thrown at them for doing nothing. I dearly hope that is not the future. It's a recipe for resentment, anger, and social disfunction.

    1. Re:Altman versus Ford by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How many workers does Tesla have? One-tenth Ford's?

    2. Re:Altman versus Ford by gweihir · · Score: 1

      That era of the human race is over. We are now moving into post-industrialism. Many people have not noticed or are in denial, but there is no stopping it.

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    3. Re:Altman versus Ford by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That era of the human race is over. We are now moving into post-industrialism. Many people have not noticed or are in denial, but there is no stopping it.

      I have lived long enough to have a few heuristics for recognizing nonsense. Anyone who has an idea which has been tried many times, and dismisses the record of failure with "This time it's different!" needs to have a reason this time is different that makes some sense.

  38. Wow, where to start by rsilvergun · · Score: 2, Interesting

    First off, thanks for trotting out Karl Rove/Regan's tired old talking point about government. To which I'll say: A government agent paid for the life saving medicine for a family member of mine. While a capitalist declined to order some cat scans for said family member because they were afraid they wouldn't get paid if the scans came up negative and caused lots of complications. Google the phrase "Wallet Biopsy" sometime and be horrified.

    Now on to the next point: I get it. You don't like Government. Well, tough titties. See, gov'ts are really, really useful. For everyone. If you try to do without one the rich and powerful won't. They'll make one for you. Well, not you per se. For themselves. And _only_ themselves.

    And for Pete's sake pick a better sig. Sweden doesn't have a bloody police state. The USSR and China are not progressive. You do understand that people can lie, right? The folks who crammed your head full of those ideas did. Go read some of Liz Warren and Al Franklin's books. Then check their sources (they're all meticulously sourced) and then go read A People's History Of The United States. You've been had.

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    1. Re:Wow, where to start by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      The government is useful if the citizens agree or forces that agreement and consensus. Saying "tough titties" for a proposed government action doesn't convince anyone that your solution is best and alludes to your acceptance of government force and tyranny. Yes, governments are useful but they have problems to ignore that reality is disingenuous.

      You are setting your self up to be divisive on a topic that shouldn't be divisive because it is a problem that will take decades to manifest and solve. Regardless, even if your ideal solution isn't picked that isn't the end of the world. Any hyperbole to say otherwise is furthering the divide between you and 'the other side'. Remember, they vote just like you and can put an end to your solution at the ballot box.

      Government inaction is a feature not a bug.

    2. Re:Wow, where to start by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      "Acceptance of government force" is a misnomer - governments are about force, fundamentally. If a government can't use force, it stops being a government, since its laws and regulations become recommendations at most. That ability to use force and coercion in a legitimate way is exactly what makes them useful and irreplaceable.

    3. Re:Wow, where to start by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      The 'and' changes much of the quote: "acceptance of government force and tyranny". Yes, the cop arresting the murderer is being forceful but like anything it is a balancing act between limp-wrist uselessness and goose-stepping tyranny.

      The topic at hand isn't so clear cut as arresting a murderer. Forcing any position without enough of a consensus among the governed will de-legitimize the government's position and will eventually be thrown out by the people that disagree when they come to power. See Obamacare.

    4. Re:Wow, where to start by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      What about Obamacare? They still can't throw it out, and all plans that they have made to do so have dismal popular support - far less than Obamacare ever did, even at its lowest point (and, ironically, it has become more popular now that there's a threat that it'll actually go away).

    5. Re:Wow, where to start by penandpaper · · Score: 1

      The proposals are irrelevant to the point.

  39. Re:But does it work? by Kohath · · Score: 1

    banks' toxic assets were made good

    We hear that a lot. If anyone ever received $1 in subsidy or service from government, they owe it back 10 million times over, payable mostly to non-workers and non-producers and the government workers who shepherd them. Meanwhile non-workers never owe anyone anything in return, not a dollar, not a thanks, not good civic behavior, not living a responsible life, not peace or domestic tranquillity, nothing, ever.

  40. Fuck Him by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Rather than give his own fucking gigantic wealth to homeless people and the lazy, he's spending it to elect politicians that will take away MY money. Fuck that. These assholes have ENDLESS ways to redistribute money from those who work to those who don't. Governments are now competing to see who is most like Robin Hood even though they also possess the powers of King John.

  41. "Ten hours a week or keeping parks clean..." by Brannon · · Score: 1

    You just described a job.

    1. Re:"Ten hours a week or keeping parks clean..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You just described a job.

      Yes, of course.

      That's not the point.

      The point, in the context of UBI, is that that job, in itself, is worth taking, such that the income from it is not taxed much, if at all. It is also not connected, in any way, to any other social security systems, causing other channels of income to be further limited or constrained in any way.

      In a society with UBI, every job is worth taking, if more disposable income is what is most wanted at that point in time. But no job is required to be taken, in order to live. (I use the word live rather than survive on purpose.)

      Ponder this for a while and you may arrive at the conclusion that UBI is not only eventually necessary, but also a good thing, even for a primarily capitalist society.

  42. Re:A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your ideological god king Milton Friedman actually advocated for a UBI because it would make the market more free because people would be better able to choose where to apply their labor power.

  43. Sounds good UP FRONT but... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Take 1 look @ sweden (especially their women being raped by muslims & they do ZERO). It turned 'em into NOTMEN! So, what does this to good men? SLAVERY does. Yes, Sweden has UBI. Look @ the results. They speak FOR me.

    * You get "outta line", your "free money" (silver string SLAVERY CHAINS) is cut the "F" off... & imo, that IS what's making their men into "not men"... how sad.

    WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON?

    LISTEN TO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2Owhcj2t84#t=624.136017/ & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-Iubcdsp7g/ people...

    SOME PARTY DIDN'T LIKE ME POSTING WHAT YOU SHOULD ALL SEE IN THOSE LINKS ABOVE FOLKS - 2x now https://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10869723&cid=54822137/ + https://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10869723&cid=54822347/ IMMEDIATELY downmodding it... gosh I wonder why (not) & guess who I wonder?

    APK

    P.S.=> What will be even WORSE will be the "NUMBER OF THE BEAST" cashless society that's probably coming ("gosh sir, there is a malfunction in your beast money account & we are working on it" while that person starves for not towing the Council on Foreign Relations/Bilderberger/Trilateral Commission JPMorgan (1st)/Goldman Sachs (now) INITIATED & BANKER CONTROLLED SYSTEM 'party line' like a GOOD COMRADE SHOULD!

    Man - this "new world DISORDER" crap?

    It's merely COMMUNISM controlled by oligarch rich bankers & it never works well in reality (only the "PARTY MEN" gain then & all others live like shit slaves)!

    We ALL KNOW who "THEY" are, don't we? I hope so - now the outright BULLSHITTERS try 'package' their crap w/ perfume - still STINKS (bad). Proof's above.

    (They call the rest of us pigs & it's ok to rob us, enslave us, rape our little girls etc. in their RELIGIOUS law books - & who were the originators of collectivist communism too? Well, you know (Martin Luther himself said all BAD comes from "them"))... apk

  44. Re: Trophies for Everyone! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    to save you a Google:
    The "copybook headings" to which the title refers were proverbs or maxims, extolling virtues such as honesty or fair dealing that were printed at the top of the pages of 19th-century British students' special notebooks, called copybooks. The school-children had to write them by hand repeatedly down the page.

  45. Re: A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He is parroting, with mistakes, what is argued here, minus the mistakes

  46. Re:But does it work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe rather than UBI something like universal basic rations should be done? Expand medicare to everyone, expand the food stamp program to everyone, expand section 8 vouchers to everyone, that covers health, food, and housing, If you want more, or better food you get a job and pay for it. if you want bigger, nicer housing, you get a job and pay for the upgrade. if you want anything extra you can get a job to earn it.

    If you just give people a wad of cash every single month, you can be certain it will get spent on other things than it should, hookers, drugs, booze, gambling, latest apple ooh shiny. etc. Whereas vouchers, food stamps will help to make sure the handout gets used to ensure basic needs are met 1st.

    Rather than taxing the people for it, steeply tax the corporate behemoth's profits that are working to put the people out of work. You could then give the corporations tax credits for the people that they return to work.

  47. Debt=slavery: Follow the $ (to the cause) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jews believe this of others they call goyim/gentiles (any non-jew): Jews = biggest racists of all (for which they "jew guilt" you for no less! They're hypocrites known as thieves all thru history or were Argentines in the 1940 under Perrone, Spanish inquistion, France (1306), Egypt (despoiled/robbed by jews), Arabs (pre & post 1948), England (1330 Edward longshanks), Romans under titus, Russia pogroms and Germany who got rid of them from their nations nazi german's too? No. Driven into DESERTS ages ago! Don't wonder why after all those exilings above. Should anyone doubt any of this see Jacob Javits' crony Rosenthal spill the beans on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4zMVZ8HnFI/ where he called all Christianity fools for helping Israel and the biggest scam of all time per their beliefs below from their Talmud. This is the province of the synagogue of Satan (Khazar/Pharisees whom Jesus Christ himself kicked to the curb out of the temple):

    Barbara Spectre, a jew, tells everyone it's jews orchestrating the muslim migrant problem in Europe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFE0qAiofMQ/ . No migrant raping of women in Poland. Tons in Sweden. Do the math. Use common-sense. This is to get muslims and other goyim/gentiles to wipe one another out as incompatible cultures that will clash and always have.

    George Soros who funds groups to create division in the USA?? A jew. One who sold his own jew people into death for the nazis. Zucker @ CNN is another frying publicly for lying about "russians" and John Bonifield a producer @ CNN said it is bs. Van Jones did also.

    There are three types of people who call themselves Jews:

    1. True Torah [Sephardic] Jews: these are the descendants of Prophet Jacob-Israel (Jacobites or Israelites) (about 5%-10% of all Jews)

    2. Khazarian or Ashkenazi Jews: these are the descendants of a Turkic idol/phallic worshiping tribe who migrated to Russia in the 7th Century A.C. and whose nobility converted to Judaism in the 8th Century A.C. and now inhabit mostly Europe. (about 90%-95% of all Jews)

    3. Zionist Jews: these are the ones from the 2 above who are pretending to be Jews for political reasons but whoâ(TM)re are actually Illuminists-Luciferian-Masonic-Satanists as Harold Wallace Rosenthal admits in this interview.

    They are led by the neo-Pharisees (occult-priest-banklords). They want to establish a Zionist Luciferian state from the Nile to the Euphrates from where they plan to rule the Earth. The new Israeli Supreme Court funded by the Rothschilds Banklords is full of Masonic Symbols, just like the B.I.S. Bank of International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, which is the Mother of All Private Central Banks.

    The hexagram symbol on the Israeli flag is the ancient Star of Moloch, a Satanic-Baal deity to which people were sacrificed. There is no such thing as a Star of David which the modern Jews have been fooled into believing; however, the True Torah Jews are not fooled by the Zionists Illuminatis and you can visit their websites for more info .

    1. Sanhedrin 59a: "Murdering Goyim is like killing a wild animal."

    2. Abodah Zara 26b: "Even the best of the Gentiles should be killed."

    3. Sanhedrin 59a: "A goy (Gentile) who pries into The Law (Talmud) is guilty of death."

    4. Yebhamoth 11b: "Sexual intercourse with a little girl is permitted if she is three years of age."

    5. Schabouth Hag. 6d: "Jews may swear falsely by use of subterfuge wording."

    6. Hilkkoth Akum X1: "Do not save Goyim in danger of death."

    7. Hilkkoth Akum X1: "Show no mercy to the Goyim."

    8. Choschen Hamm 388, 15: "If it can be proven that someone has given the money of Israelites to the Goyim, a way must be found after prudent consideration to wipe him off the face of the earth."

    9. Choschen Hamm 266,1: "A Jew may keep anything he finds which belongs to the Akum (Gentile). For he who returns lost propert

  48. Re: A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes I'm sure the fed can just keep playing these games forever with no negative consequences! You can play all the games you want with the money supply but at the end of the day wealth comes from people producing stuff and there is no such thing as a free lunch.

  49. Re: A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Damn slashdot lack of linking, The link https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDe5kUUyT0

  50. Re: Defining principles of socialism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, exactly! Just create more money! It works in Venezuela!

  51. The system will collapse. by roman_mir · · Score: 0

    The system is going to collapse one way or another. If UBI is attempted the cost of running it will collapse the system and whatever so called 'civilization' will cease to exist.

    The costs are already above what the system can afford anyway with all the government taxes on income and property, with taxes that are regulations on business, with all the fake money and price and wage manipulation. The systemic collapse is working its way through every facet of the economy and society already, UBI will accelerate this but whether it is implemented or not the system is collapsing. The collapse is inevitable under the conditions that the system has been operating for over a century, with the taxes, regulations, price controls, laws and regulations (which are also taxes), the productivity of most individuals has been destroyed and the cost of an unproductive individual is already too high for the system to keep going. It's over whether you all like it or not and UBI will simply make it end faster.

    1. Re:The system will collapse. by skam240 · · Score: 1

      Right, so you can just go secure yourself a solid spot on that preppers tv show for the looming blood bath that will surely follow your ordained collapse.

      The rest of us will keep looking for and talking about viable solutions to future problems.

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  52. Re:But does it work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just the corporate tax part itself could be a huge help in reducing job loss. Tax the corporations something insane like 80% of their profits as a baseline, generate some formula that for whatever profit amount, you need to employ x number of people FULL TIME to reduce the tax burden by 1%, each time they hit that milestone of employee count the tax rate could be reduced a further percent.

    That leaves a corporation free to fully automate their process if they want, but then they can pay out the ass in taxes to cover the social programs for those that they automated out of jobs.

  53. he's just trying to head off a second holocaust by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    considering y-combinator is basically a judaic capital fund for jewish stanford grads to start jewish startups, he's probably worried that the goys will get "woke" and start crowdsourcing zyklon-b.

  54. Re:But does it work? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    It works until the cash runs out.
    Germany attempted things like that in the 1920-early 1930's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
    Consider an average person from school to the old age pension in 2017.
    Got so school and maybe the parents get a support payment from the gov.
    When school is done a person has options? Mil, university study, scholarship, can pay or gets a loan for more education, vocational training, gov work, joins the private sector, looks for work, create some work or has to be looked after.
    Stay at home? Rent? Move to anther city to study or find work? A government might help its citizens with such costs while they study or find work.
    Each of the above options can be given no or some or full gov support. On average the gov is not paying everyone all the time and should be getting some tax payments in from the private sector workers. Or as students join the work force or create their own new private sector jobs and pay their taxes.
    As the person who did vocational training joins the work force or stars they own company later and takes on new workers.
    Some people may never get jobs and need more support for rent, housing, finding work.
    Farms that have a lot of wealth in buildings and machinery but are very cash poor for years might need extra support for a few years depending on conditions.
    Not having a UBI gives a government flexibility to ramp up unexpected payments in any area that needs support one decade or for a year.
    People who are not totally poor but are not in the lower working class and are stuck paying tax and get getting any support?
    That can be understood and some help provided in the tax system for the working poor or with more direct payments.
    Lots of older people are stuck between the old age pension and trying to find work due to imports and they jobs going to other nations? They can be looked after, helped to find new skills or just supported. Finally people get their old age pension.
    The only funding trick is to keep the above system for your citizens only and to collect tax. No illegal migrants get any payments, no accepting decades of unskilled refugees, no hiding all profits in some other nation.
    No health payments to generations of guest workers, illegal migrants. No tax refunds for illegal migrants.
    Over a generation every illegal migrant is asked to return to their own nation.

    The problem is that all has to be means tested, tracked by a gov and citizenship proven at every stage of life. That soon discovers big trusted brands not paying and tax and using low wage illegal workers.
    Wealthy people want a UBI so their illegal migrants, poor workers, guest workers or working poor get covered with feee new gov cash without any new questions or investigations.
    No wage pressure to pay more as the gov is giving "everyone" in a nation free money. Less union power and no new tax questions about the legal status of workers.
    Just pay the UBI and keep the really low wages. So expect to see a lot of very different groups been very well funded to push for a no questions asked UBI policy.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  55. Re:A UBI... by gweihir · · Score: 2

    Crushing poverty is an absolute disgrace for a modern nation. There is no need at all for it economically either, because it is _expensive_ to have people live in poverty. The only thing it serves is to keep the middle-class in fear and timid. No other use.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  56. Re:A UBI... by gweihir · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The thing you UBI-detractors do not understand is that the UBI is Universal. It has minimal overhead, quite unlikely the system in place now. That is the whole point. It just distributes mostly the same money as is distributed now, but with almost no bureaucracy and nobody falling through the cracks. It eliminates a lot of value-destruction the current system does and fosters.

    However, there are certainly problems with an UBI. For example, many people will find it really difficult to live without work and not because of financial aspects. That is the real killer here. With an UBI, all the make-work things currently done will fall away and that is going to hit hard. Just look at how many people run into massive issues when they retire or how many dies soon afterwards. People need something to do and many cannot create that by and for themselves.

    That said, an UBI will happen, there is no way around that. The numbers just do not add up any other way, unless the whole world agrees to go back to a non-tech model of society. That is not going to happen.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  57. Re:But does it work? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

    Tax the corporations something insane like 80% of their profits

    You would quickly see massive capital flight and job losses, as corporations moved assets overseas. You might think that with enough totalitarian restrictions and secret police survelliance you could stop that, but China has lost $3.8 trillion over the last decade, despite severe capital controls.

    Historically, capital controls have been about as effective as grabbing smoke.

  58. Re: Trophies for Everyone! by KGIII · · Score: 1

    He broke into camps and stole what he needed.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  59. Re:A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Remove corporate tax exemptions, and you'd have more than enough money for a proper welfare system.

  60. Re:A UBI... by BlueStrat · · Score: 0

    Redistribution-based societies/economies (which is what UBI is...it takes from the productive and redistributes it to the non-productive) based around collectivist ideology almost always results in equality. The 99% are all equally poor with no escape from poverty realistically possible, and the elite 1% leadership live like royalty. Also, those currently-productive people will not remain productive. The blue-collar types in the former USSR had a saying; "We pretend to work, they pretend to pay us."

    That's one of the major failings of all collectivist ideologies and typically results in their eventual collapse if a revolution or coup doesn't finish them first; They never account for, and typically totally ignore and/or attempt a frontal-assault upon, basic human nature.

    They put enormous power over an entire nation into the hands of a small group of individuals. Even if these leaders don't start out with bad intentions, we all know from the famous Stanford Prison experiment oft-cited here what happens psychologically to their behaviors and attitudes.

    But many of the same people on both Left & Right who have cited such studies in comments here seem unable or unwilling to make the connection from those studies to the wisdom of handing a small group enormous power over a great many people when it comes to their ideological/political beliefs.

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  61. agree/disagree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I used to agree with a single payer health system, but no more - just look to countries that have it... they hate it.
    UBI is complex. As some have said, currently this is a solution in search of a problem. Also, you cant just give everyone the same due to different costs of living in different places. Further, what happens when stores realize everyone has disposable income? Will they raise their prices? Additionally, one has to ask, how much? Is it enough? Too much? Would it aid in reducing or eliminating homelessness? Even working in tandem with reduced housing prices, I doubt it.
    This will not win me any friends but, I have an idea. There are a number of abandoned towns throughout the US. We bring the homeless to one of the more remote locations, supply them with what they would need until they could become more or less self-sustaining.

  62. You suck at math by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    $1 Trillion a year on welfare. Actually the WaPo says we don't spend close to that much, but let's assume they are wrong and it is $1 Trillion.

    Lets just use 300 million US citizens, its more but perhaps we don't count children or something. Lets split it up and see what we get...
    $1 Trillion / 300 million people = $3,000 per person.
    There will STILL be overhead and other costs, plus you will have to give more to disabled more needy and such.

    So you are completely lying. I suspect you know you are lying.

    Congratulations, you just got called out for it.

  63. Have the balls to sign all your crap APK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Come on APK at least have the balls to sign all your crap. That is right you are too much of a pussy to do so, but now you are going to bitch about AC posts when you post as AC. So I guess you really are just a whiny little pussy. Instead of bitching about AC posts are you going to pretend to be some other AC and support yourself like you do all the time?

  64. Re:lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ycombinator invested in all of those companies, and the market cap of all companies that they have funded exceeds $65B. I'm the same age and do you know what? My investments haven't been quite that successful. How about yours?

  65. See APK is a retard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Strange how the parent poster and APK have the same habits. It is like they are the same mentally damaged individual.

  66. See APK is a retard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey retard you posted that already. I guess that is just more proof that APK is too stupid to operate a computer.

  67. Re:A UBI... by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

    I'm going to go ahead and say that you're a moron and a rationalist. Things like ideals are more real to you thank actual observed reality. If your economics God says one thing, well then that's true even if the actual supporting evidence has yet to come around. In this case, I assume that you're waiting on the imminent collapse of western social democracies, based on the idea that all collectivism is bad.

    Keep arguing exactly like this. You and APK make a great team.

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  68. Re:A UBI... by guruevi · · Score: 1

    I had used the > and < and Slashdot ate my comment.

    The whole procedure for current welfare comes down to "Check income level, give money". We are currently giving 1 Trillion dollar per year to less than 10% of the population. That is $20,000 per poor person in the US, $80,000 for a family of 4 and according to at least one left wing instiution there is less than 5% overhead on that.

    We are giving poor people a UBI already and the poor are not getting any better off.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  69. Re:A UBI... by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 0

    People who advocate for UBI don't math.

    Actually, a universal social security would stabilize the social security OASDI system permanently by providing a basis; reduce total income tax burden on all income earners (the rough, unadjusted model cuts the top tax bracket from 39.6% to 35%); reduce payroll taxes by 0.9%; and reduce corporate income taxes by 2.5%.

    Try actually doing the math once.

    Math tallying government budgets and universal social security projections. Also math about impacts on take-home wages.

    I also did further math on the handling of childcare welfare and naturalized American households, which came out (in 2013) to cost ~1.4% more of all AGI on top of this. This system shifts OASDI from payroll to income taxes and redistributes it into a universal benefit, then restores OASDI's full benefit to OASDI recipients by restoring the OASDI payroll tax at 5.3%, hence why it's only a 0.9% reduction in payroll taxes and not a 6.2% reduction.

    Note that this is a rough model, and needs adjustment by the CBO. The tax brackets actually peak at the middle-income level, then fall back down again. Even without adjusting to smooth tax brackets, the low point is at $200,000, where a single earner takes home $2,700 more spendable income than he does today, and a two-adult household (joint filer) takes home around $11,000 more. Everyone with more or less income than this is more-advantaged by this system.

    That middle-class peak tax bracket, by the way, comes from the Social Security OASDI tax being currently capped at $121k ($118k in 2016). There's an extra 6.2% paycheck + 6.2% payroll tax (or 12.4% FICA, for the self-employed) on top of the Federal tax brackets. Once you break out of the Social Security Wage Base, your tax burden drops.

    Do any of you people bother doing the math before you talk about whether the math works out?

  70. Re:A UBI... by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No, that's not why UBI wouldn't work, you and your friends apparently do not understand how it's supposed to work.

    It would be neutral in terms of income for the middle class. The concept isn't "We add UBI to the current system", but "We replace all forms of welfare and even the tiered taxation model with UBI and a flat tax". The savings that pay for it come from:

    1. Everyone on the same tax rate. So you pay 25% on every dollar, you don't get the first $X thousand free of tax, then the next $Y thousand at a lower rate, etc.
    2. Reduced bureaucracy due to qualifications testing for existing benefits being eliminated.

    The problem, of course, is that the latter isn't really going to work. You can't replace disability with UBI because the average person on disability has much higher medical costs, and they can't exactly solve the discrepancy by finding a part time job.

    That is the real problem with UBI. It ignores why we only provide certain benefits to certain people and assumes that everyone covered can just get a job if UBI doesn't cover their needs. So in practice, it wouldn't solve the bureaucracy issue. The best you can hope for is to combine it with a general improvement in public services - making healthcare free, for example, would at least reduce the problems for someone whose disability benefits are replaced by UBI - but that wouldn't solve the whole problem.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  71. Re:A UBI... by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

    The Social Security system is one of the most-successful anti-poverty systems in the world, if not the most-successful. I've been targeting a Universal Social Security, and I figure it will fare rather well. Unfortunately I'm bad at Web design and communicating in general.

    Also the argument about the welfare system sucking down tons of money in either overhead or abuse is a red herring. That's not a real thing; most such systems are actually quite efficient, and nearly all of the so-called abuse is bureaucratic--caseworkers tend to see that you technically don't qualify for food stamps, but that you're exactly the type of case for which we have SNAP and WIC, and so they approve applications which later fail bureaucratic review and get flagged as inappropriate disbursements.

    Most UBI advocates have a distorted view of welfare, of economics, and of the dynamics of government. They have no idea what they're talking about and are easily-dismissed. That's a big problem, because a universal social security is a good policy if implemented properly, and the loud voice of the public is a ridiculous ass-dance that ties itself to the idea. Sort of a giant well-poisoning attack against any such thing.

    Other things UBI advocates imagine that don't line up with reality are corporate-supplied welfare (bullshit jobs, make-work, any idea of a job existing because people need jobs instead of because corporations need labor); the end of work thanks to automation; and a great need to tax the rich, either because they have too much or because of a lack of capacity to figure out how to finance a UBI.

  72. No Honest Candidates get on the ballot by SpectateSwamp · · Score: 1

    What a pathetic group we get to vote for. Could you imagine any of the candidates being one of your circle of friends. Not Me.

    --
    Challenge: I have better access to my Video, Music, Pics and Text than anyone on Earth.
  73. Re:A UBI... by pnutjam · · Score: 1

    There are plenty of welfare success stories. We wouldn't have Harry Potter without welfare.

  74. A good bridge to a new economic system by ErichTheRed · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure if I believe that 100% of knowledge worker jobs will be replaced in a timescale short enough to cause upheaval. However it is possible, and I think a basic income is a good option to bridge the gap. It's not because I'm lazy and don't want to work; it's because I can see a time when people won't have to work in some of the crappier knowledge worker jobs, and almost no one will be doing manual labor jobs.

    The root of the problem is that our entire society is organized around educating people to take jobs, working at those jobs, selling labor for money, consuming, and repeating the cycle to continue consuming. Money is the key thing that stratifies everyone, and in a perfect scenario how much you have is proportional to how valuable your labor is. (Yes, I know that we don't live in an ideal world - there are plenty of scammers, trust fund kids, criminals and corrupt individuals.) If you suddenly introduce changes into society that make it impossible for people to sell their labor, and impossible for most of them to retrain for something else, then you have to rethink the whole idea of work. If people aren't working in the traditional society we live in, they're consuming less, and companies won't have as many customers for their products. They'll respond by producing less, making less money and therefore hiring fewer people. Once the majority of society is unemployed, you have a big problem on your hands. If you want to keep the old monetary system of valuing things in place, then how do you prevent them from turning to crime or revolting en masse?

    I have worked in a lot of big companies, and most corporate jobs are lightweight "knowledge worker" positions that could easily be eliminated by machine learning and automation. There are millions of people who have these jobs and maintain a pretty decent lifestyle while paying taxes into the system and consuming. They're also people who aren't exactly geniuses -- most are typical "C students" who graduated with some random business degree from various state universities. I doubt you're going to retrain someone who's been routing reports around forever to be a big data scientist.

    1. Re:A good bridge to a new economic system by apoc.famine · · Score: 1

      I doubt you're going to retrain someone who's been routing reports around forever to be a big data scientist.

      The old joke was, "Go away or I'll replace you with a small shell script." This is that taken to a level many orders of magnitude higher. I'm automating tons of parts of my job at the moment. Lots of things that used to be done by hand are now scripted. Why? Because this job traditionally was held by someone much more of a report router and general knowledge bank.
       
      However, what I'm realizing is that I've fundamentally changed this job. The person they hire to replace me when I leave is not going to be the same type of person that used to get hired to do this job. It's going need to be a tech savvy person who can use automation to solve problems. Multiply this effect by the million other businesses in the world, and we're quickly changing jobs to require far fewer people, and the ones that are still required need to be automators themselves.

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
  75. Re:But does it work? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

    Corporations hide as much of their profits as possible.

    You'd mostly see increases in indirect unemployment. When the economy shifts, jobs are lost and gained. You lose 0.1%, gain 0.1%, everything is fine. These movements of jobs come from consumer demand: the new jobs are created by consumers buying from new companies, buying new products, and so forth.

    What happens when consumer demand moves, and the businesses don't have the cash to outlay for changes necessary to provide for that demand?

    Taxing business income at 0% is probably a bad idea; taxing it at 80% is also a bad idea. I favor lower business income taxes, where it makes rational sense; and I favor them in the context above. Prosperity doesn't trickle down; prosperity drives its way upwards. It's not a matter of taking away money for jobs--we deduct wages paid from a business's incomes, after all--but rather a matter of reducing the agility of our economy. The question, thus, is simple: How much agility do we need?

    Payroll taxes, on the other hand, directly increase wages without transferring those wages to the worker. If you pay a worker $100/hr and have a 10% payroll tax, then you pay that worker $110/hr, but he receives $100/hr, on which he pays his own income taxes. To sell the output of his work, you must charge enough to bring in $110/hr of revenue. I cannot eliminate all payroll taxes in some policies I would like to deploy, as it would be economically disruptive; I would argue heavily against any new payroll taxes, however.

    Sales taxes are even worse.

  76. Re:A UBI... by apoc.famine · · Score: 0

    I agree, but there just isn't enough money in our current welfare system to pay for a functional UBI system. We will need to extract some of the wealth that the top 20% has stocked away to fund UBI. And that is never easy to do, as they are the ones who control politics.
     
    The good news is that redistribution of wealth should really help the economy. Giving the poor and middle class more to spend is great, because they will spend it. Right now that money is not benefiting anyone. The 1% already have more than they can really spend, and they're just using their money to make more money. They're sitting on about 35% of the money in the US. The next 19% of the population controls another 50% of the money. When the top 20% hoards 85% of the wealth in the country, that's not an economically sustainable situation. Injecting half that back into the economy would likely fuel an amazing period of prosperity for the country.

    --
    Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
  77. Supply and Demand Motherfuckers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What is it that is so confusing about supply and demand for a large proportion of the population? UBI cannot work simply because if everyone has n dollars, the value of n dollars is diminished. Prices will increase to reflect the new financial reality. It seems like it's the same people who can't understand that a college degree used to be a clear path to well-paying jobs specifically because people with college degrees were scarce, and thus had value. As the proportion of the population with college degrees increases, the value of a college degree decreases. So, no, making sure every kid gets a college education will not ensure well-paying jobs for everyone, it will ensure that a college education has little value in the labor market.

  78. Re:Political motives? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I got a Black Amazon Dot, which matches my vintage 2006 Black Macbook.

  79. Re:A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's mostly advocated by foreigners who went down the same path and want to level the playing field with the US

  80. Re:A UBI... by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    Sorry to see that the trolls and morons have mod points, and used them on you. I, for one, know that you don't deserve that.

  81. Yes - and we do by tacokill · · Score: 1

    Well, we don't outright ban it. But we do tax the hell out of it. Ever heard of the Estate Tax? You should look it up because it's relevant to your argument.

    1. Re:Yes - and we do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It sure is. How can one expect to have a meritocracy where inheritance even exists as a concept, let alone isn't taxed?

    2. Re:Yes - and we do by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      I notice that you didn't mention anything about capital-derived income, though. Which we don't "tax the hell out of". In fact, we tax it less than sweat-of-the-brow income.

  82. Re: Defining principles of socialism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually, in a developed economy I think it could work. This isn't the Weimar Republic or Venezuela where the daily focus is keeping people from starving, and all transactions are done in physical currency. Both those situations involved unstable currencies and unstable situations. The key to making it work in the US and Europe would be to control the rate of inflation carefully, which can be done in a modern economy through monetary policy.

    Creating more money would increase liquidity in a system where people are afraid to spend money. When most people are unemployed, as may happen in the future across all economic strata, everyone is going to hoard money if it's still the only way to ensure security. Pumping more money into the system means more is available and it's not a scarce good that people hoard.

  83. UBI for politicians...a Bold Experiment! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you think about it, there are plenty of people for whom it really is best that they do NOTHING, nothing at all...their participation in the economy and workplace is actually detrimental to getting things accomplished, and a drag on overall productivity.

    Politicians are a perfect example...

  84. Make Work, not Love... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We need people to stop breeding.

  85. Re:But does it work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Rights supercede experimentation.

    Okay. People's right to the fruits of their labors supersede your desire to steal from them. So no UBI for you.

  86. Re:A UBI... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

    This.

    Humans need to have a purpose to be individually happy.

    Humans need to be productive to have a happy society.

    Society needs the production of goods and services to avoid scarcity of resources, and thus survive.

    UBI, as currently pitched, is mostly billionaires trying to foist their nouveau-riche guilt off onto society, so they don't have to take personal responsibility for anything.

    Once technology gets to the point of creating a post-scarcity society, then the rules will change. For now, it's a recipe for a decaying society and must be avoided, so that we can get to that vision.

    These Silicon Valley rich-guys are exactly the worst people to listen to about this, as they have personal reasons to put this particular cart before the horse.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  87. Re:A UBI... by GonzoPhysicist · · Score: 1

    I don't see why you'd use a flat tax and not stick with a progressive tiered system (obviously you'd have to adjust the value and rates of those tiers to make it work)

    --
    horror vacui
  88. Re:A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thanks. :)

    Yes, the Left cannot compete in the open marketplace of ideas, and so they must silence opposing views.

    The same type of tactics (minus IRL violence...for now at least) that ANTIFA (ANTI First Amendment, not anti-fascist, that's a lie) use. Shout-down, suppress, and violently-riot to prevent other people's views from being heard.

    So much tolerance and love. But *only* as long as you don't stray off of the Leftist Nanny-State Plantation, otherwise they're ready to shove you into an oven..

  89. Re:A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Printing money (or simply adding zeroes to a number on a screen) dilutes the existing wealth that money represents and is effectively a tax on everyone holding that currency.

    The only reason the US dollar hasn't collapsed is that the banks receiving the 'printed' money are sitting on it for the most part. The "velocity" of that money is near zero. However, the money "printed" to cover a UBI would have a high "velocity" as it would be spent almost immediately and enter the economy.

    An enemy of the US could hardly find a better soft-attack.

  90. Re: But does it work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is *nothing* preventing him from applying his principles to his own businesses: lowering the costs for everyone, giving billions to those who are currently unemployed for them to not work, buying hospitals which will give top-quality care without a bill, and so on.

    The truth lies in his actions: he wants the poor to be beholden to him, taxing everyone else and not himself.

  91. Re:A UBI... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

    This presents UBI and welfare as either/or, which is not necessarily the case. We can still replace many means-tested welfare programs with UBI, without touching others. And this still presents a net reduction in bureaucracy.

  92. Re:A UBI... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

    The problem with your argument is that humans can be productive and thereby find a purpose to be happy, without being paid for that purpose.

    While we're at it, how many people who are working for a living are actually happy with what they do at work? Especially once you look at those earning less than median?

    One could easily argue that UBI is exactly what would enable more people to find a purpose and be productive at it, instead of doing shitty work that they hate for shitty pay.

  93. Re:A UBI... by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

    I'm going to go ahead and say that you're a moron and a rationalist.

    A natural reaction from somebody who has no knowledge of history or human nature, or ignores such for political/ideological reasons. Nothing but ad hominem attacks. All this talk of "supporting evidence" and not one citation/link.

    Before you go spouting off about others being morons you need to do a great deal of self-reflection.

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  94. Re:A UBI... by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    Uh, I'm not even characterizing UBI proponents as 'right' or 'left', rather as 'lazy' and 'dumb'. I'm sure there are just as many 'right wing' types that want free money to live on so they can party and be lazy as 'left wing' types. All it takes is being bad at math and not having anything resembling a work ethic.

  95. Re:A UBI... by erapert · · Score: 1

    So the truth was modded "Troll" and thus Western Civilization collapsed.
    Not because it was attacked and invaded by barbarians (though that was occurring at the time as well) but because of the self-righteous greed of the mob.

  96. Re:A UBI... by erapert · · Score: 1

    In other words, people who are making profits end up footing the bill for the people they laid off to make those profits.

    If they were laid off then by definition they aren't helping to make those profits.

    The rest of your post may be correct or incorrect-- I haven't "done the math" myself-- but since your reasoning is obviously tainted by socialist ideology then I don't have much confidence in the rest of your analysis.

  97. Re:A UBI... by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

    The onus is on you, cretin, and will remain that way so long as social democracies exist. There's no real need to argue with you, your beliefs won't outlive you. Do feel free to hasten that day, however.

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  98. APK sucks elephant cock nightly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What is the problem APK you sucked that elephant's cock raw so now you post to slash dot.
     
    You are a big tough talking no action pussy who is now going to whine a bitch about AC posts because you are a little whiny bitch.Or are you going to post about your faggot little hosts file engine where you can't even do the real work.

  99. Re:Sure sounds good UP FRONT but... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No it is AC posters that are keeping APK and his faggot little hosts file engine down. What he doesn't realize is that his software sucks harder than a black hole with daddy issue.

  100. Re:But does it work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think the high initial tax on profits with discounts based on the workers they employ vs the profit amount sounds like a good idea.

    If the company wants to automate and hoard their profit, they can get taxed an insane amount on it. If they hire a lot of people, that profit tax could potentially drop to 0% and the government would get their taxes from the income tax the workers pay and the tax skimming of every other transaction down the line.

    Puts the businesses in full control of how much taxes they pay based on how much they automate.

  101. Did some jew touch APK in bad ways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    APK is your problem that some Jew touched you in bad ways so you feel the need to spam slash dot? Everyone knows it is you posting this crap and everyone recognizes you AC posts to support your self. You must be a sad individual and regret that your life has amounted to some shit software and a pile of spam on an internet tech discussion site. Me I'm drunk and trollin just waiting to laugh at your spastic responses when you finally get around to respond and likely won't remember this tomorrow. Also most other slash doters laugh at you too when you respond. I know it isn't proper to laugh at the mentally handicapped but in your case we all make an exception. While you do get the last word you also don't win as most people have moved on and your arguments are circular at best and at worst alcohol and LSD fueled trip through the jungle of the insane.

  102. APK like trumps small hands by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    APK likes trumps small hands because it makes his tiny dick look yuge.
     
    Have you written Trump so that he can personally pass along your magic hosts file engine to US cyber command and the NSA to stop nation state level threats?
     
    That is right the work you do doesn't do shit for security, so why don't you leave things like that to the real pros.
     
    You know the people who can say with a straight face that a perfectly reasonable solution is to feed a $50,000 server that was intercepted in transit to an electronics shredded and have someone bring a new one as carry on luggage or buy a seat for the server.
     
    So please tell me about the people who recommend your hosts file engine, or how your were featured in some article because your work is absolute garbage when it come to real threats.
     
    Your advice is garbage and while it may protect grandma's facebook account it doesn't do dick in the real world and for real threats your advice is detrimental.

  103. Re:A UBI... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That is downright cruel equating someone to APK. Reasonable people can disagree on things like economics since it seems economists are at best only slightly better than a role of the dice. Since there hasn't really been a wide scale test of UBI there isn't any data to suggest how it might actually pan out. As such it is just best guesses. With the Keynesian and Chicago schools of economic thought being very different it seems perfectly reasonable that they would come to 2 different conclusions on what would happen.
     
    Besides BlueStrat doesn't go out and personally attack, stalk, slander, or go full retard on people like APK does. Add in that BlueStrat has an account and fully claims his work unlike APK and you have a much better individual.

  104. APK is a retarded antisemite by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fuck off APK with your antisemitic shit posts.
     
    Don't worry I'm sure you will claim victory here too as I won't respond to what ever garbage from your follows.
     
    Are your going to bitch about your comments being suppressed, or will it be AC Ne'er-do-wells as you attempt to sound like you have an IQ above room temperature.
     
    I know it will be you claiming that you have done better and then offering up your fucking garbage work as an example of greatness when it is really something that I would be embarrassed to show off.

  105. Re:A UBI... by guruevi · · Score: 1

    Please tell me how any social plans so far have worked. We are currently giving ~$20,000 per poor person (that's $80k/year for a "poor" 4 person family) in the US in welfare and they continue to be poor.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  106. APK is a cunt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It looks like APK feels he needs to post this garbage multiple times because it was rightfully down modded. It must be hard for him in a world when people recognize that his work sucks and that he is a cunt. What are you going to tell me about how you played a sport in college that one cared about and because of that I need to care about your opinion? Your glory days are past APK and they weren't great given what you offer. Your life sucks leave the rest of us alone as we have all heard your tired diatribe before. Your posts are a mess that needs an adopt a highway crew to cleanup and bury. APK you add nothing of value to anything and when you chime in on a discussion you massively increase the local and overall entropy in the universe.

  107. Re:A UBI... by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

    The United States Social Security Administration provides Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance pensions. Like all of our welfare systems, it experiences an incredibly-low degree of recipient abuse, largely thanks to the Office of the Inspector General's effectiveness in identifying fraudulent applicants by a broad array of investigatory means including simple spot-checks. Largely, however, OASDI is practically-immune to fraud in the Old-Age and Survivorship pensions services, as it's hard to fake a dead person being alive for very long, especially with public records of death; only Disability Insurance experiences direct fraud to any significant degree, and that's caught in surprisingly short order.

    What sets OAS in particular apart from TANF, WIC, SNAP, unemployment insurance, and especially HUD is its sheer effectiveness. Only 10% of Americans above retirement age live below the Federal old-age poverty line. Social Security's Old-Age and Survivors pension program would completely-eliminate old-age poverty if it restructured around a flatter (or flat) benefit using the same total disbursal. This would also address the recent problem of eligibility: because many of today's low-income workers are in and out of employment, they don't even qualify for OAS; a flat benefit would address that.

    Compare that to TANF and WIC, which don't adequately reach all recipients; SNAP, which frequently provides an inadequate benefit; Unemployment Insurance, which creates a disincentive to work by both discounting itself from any offered wage and placing a large risk of not qualifying for unemployment again if the job doesn't work out; and HUD Housing Assistance, which provides benefits to 1/4 of qualified applicants, and places the other 3/4 on a waiting list from which they never graduate, effectively denying benefits to 75% of qualified households while telling them they legally are owed benefits.

    As you can see, the OASDI program is wildly-successful, and still has room for improvement. A program of universal social security can provide similar success, both by stabilizing the economy at large, all individual households, and other aspects of our welfare system, all while reducing the tax burden on America's citizens and businesses.

    Restructuring TANF, WIC, SNAP, unemployment, and HUD housing assistance around a universal social security program with supplemental assistance (largely childcare support services--Cash for Kids is a really, really bad idea) would provide more-effective welfare while reducing taxes on every taxpaying individual in the United States, immediately lowering payroll taxes by 0.9%, and reducing the business income taxes from 35% to 32.5%. This would include retaining OASDI as a supplemental service which fills the gap between the universal benefit and the OASDI benefits of today.

    This system stabilizes OASDI and takes a large amount of load off WIC, SNAP, and HUD. It completely-obviates unemployment insurance. HUD housing assistance can ignore the 3/4 of applicants currently not receiving, or it can attempt to address them; in either case, the benchmark number for HUD to use from the universal benefit is 45% of the benefit's payout, and HUD can discount its annual subsidy by that much (plus any received OASDI, for households receiving OASDI) for recipient households. Most two-adult households will exceed their HUD benefit by this calculation, and thus become ineligible. Note that HUD housing assistance today only costs $60 billion annually, or $39/month per taxpaying household.

    So yes, our Social Security system provides the most-successful anti-poverty system ever seen; it can be improved; and we can design a better service based around it. Our current total crop of welfare plans has severe defects and doesn't accomplish its mission; we need to re-orient that mission to something achievable by providing an effective baseline service from which to build.

    As for numbers, that $20,000 per person number is

  108. Re:A UBI... by RyoShin · · Score: 1

    many people will find it really difficult to live without work and not because of financial aspects

    I don't understand this line of thought (which I place in the same vein as "everyone will become fat and lazy"). I agree that make-work jobs will disappear, but charities and hobbies will not evaporate along with them. A lot of the human-dedicated charities might dwindle, as UBI replaces any need for them, but there are plenty of charities that are not focused on basic human welfare and many of these other groups will expand as more people have time to volunteer for them.

    People already donate time beyond their standard 40 hours (or more) at their paying job. My day job is data management and translation, but I also volunteer at a feline rescue/shelter, doing not only shift management and visitor "greeting", but also involved in a lot of their tech-related needs. President Jimmy Carter collapsed building free homes for people this past weekend.

    When you're in retirement you don't necessarily have the energy or ability to go out to such places, but I expect even geriatrics might find new opportunities in such a system. UBI means that cash will move around more freely within communities, which will lead to more entrepreneurship; they might get a gig that is both low-hour and low-pay (as low as $1/hour) where they just say "hello" to people who walk into a store and tell them where to find various departments (think Wal-mart greeters, but everywhere.) Go in one day a week, sit on a chair for 6-8 hours, and they get a little extra money on top of their UBI.

    I think that UBI would lead to a lot more community efforts as well, to make those UBI dollars stretch for people who want to do something but can't stomach any jobs offered. Community gardens, simplistic tailoring, various trades of services. Many of these would spring from hobbies and personal interests (how many people maintain a small garden in their backyard or quilt/knit on their own time and dime?). Re-using or re-purposing stuff would also take on an extra amount of focus, so someone who can fix up an old laptop could do so in exchange for a few tomatoes or a warm hat.

  109. Start a UBI crypto currency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    UBIcoin, each account holder gets 100 UBIcoin per month
    put in a deflationary aspect, e.g., coins disappear if not used within 1 month, or all coins get deflated by 50% every month before the new coins are issued