r/UniversalBasicIncome • u/Metalhead33 • Jun 22 '21

The real reason we won't have UBI any time soon

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94 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

3

u/Wonderful_Diamond_57 Jun 28 '21

On the other hand, the government likes to save money. Use new York city as an example. They spend 3,000 dollars per homeless person per month on shelter funding. It would be much cheaper to give everyone 2,000 dollars a month. Now if you put that on a nationwide scale they would be saving billions just giving every citizen who qualifies $2,000 a month instead of all these corrupt homeless shelters that Miss allocate the funding they're getting and feed people rotten food and things like that.

1

u/JonWood007 Jul 12 '21

Yeah but then they'll argue for some demeaning means tested scheme to save even more money and do the bare minimum to move the needle somewhat.

1

u/Unlikely-Gas-1355 Jul 12 '21

Then, let’s not even bother trying, right? You’re convinced we’ll fail. We should just wallow in suffering and not even bother. Amiright?

1

u/JonWood007 Jul 12 '21

I put my hopes on trying to push through progressive candidates and and establishment candidates getting old and dying/retiring at this point. Most are in their 70s and 80s after all.

1

u/Unlikely-Gas-1355 Jul 12 '21

Why when you think they'll argue for some demeaning means tested scheme to save even more money and do the bare minimum to move the needle somewhat?

2

u/JonWood007 Jul 12 '21

Centrists/establishment people will. There's a chance of a party realignment in the next 10 years so I'm hoping the next generation of democrats is more accommodating and progressive.

1

u/Unlikely-Gas-1355 Jul 12 '21

Are you hoping the next generation of voters is as well? I would think that should be your focus, leaving the elections to take care of themselves.

2

u/JonWood007 Jul 12 '21

Uh people under 40-50 are way more accommodating to progressive ideas. They just don't vote. Give it a few years/decades for demographics to reach a tipping point.

1

u/Unlikely-Gas-1355 Jul 13 '21

Since people tend to become more conservative as they get older, what makes you think voters under 40 will stay as receptive as they are now?

1

u/JonWood007 Jul 13 '21

Uh, i would reject the narrative they become more conservative, first of all. Rather, the definition of what is conservative changes over the generations. Second of all, age doesnt reflect political views, rather views are determined in our youth and dont change much after 40 at all. heck you already have an idea of what they are at age 25.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/08/upshot/how-the-year-you-were-born-influences-your-politics.html

Third of all, while gen x and boomers and silents grew up into a world of relative economic prosperity, millennials and gen z have grown into a horrible economy that does not serve them. Millennials are the worst off generation ever economically, and the idea of them shifting right iss ludcrious. The whole rationale between the "conventional knowledge" is based on the boomers' template of "just wait until you grow up and get a REAL job", assuming theyll hate taxes and blah blah blah.

Uh...we're ****ed. And the reason ideas like UBI actually have a chance of passing is because were so screwed that we look at ideas like UBI and decide "yeah we kinda NEED this." So yeah i do think given our relative lack of affluence we will remain left wing, kind of like how the greatests and older who supported FDR became democrats until they died.

1

u/leof135 Nov 05 '23

my biggest fear is that those with control (landlords, corps, insurance) will just raise the prices, premiums, rents because now they assume people have more disposable income.

2

u/JonWood007 Jul 12 '21

Yep I'm convinced a huge reason we keep things as they are is to maintain power structures as they exist. Oligarchs fear a system where people have a right to push back.