Universal Basic Income

Randy

Randy

Well-known member
The past couple of months and the ones ahead of us have been and will be difficult for a lot of people.
Those currently unable to work or those unfortunate to lose their jobs will feel it more than others who have been able to continue working.
Universal Basic Income has been discussed more and more over the last few years with even one presidential candidate in America using it is a campaign promise.

https://www.yang2020.com/what-is-freedom-dividend-faq/

Is now the time for us to bring this in and radically reform the benefits system?
£1000 per month for any legal resident of this country 18 and over wether they are in employment or not.

Pros and cons?

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/can-universal-basic-income-fix-the-coronavirus-crisis

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bl...government-aims-to-roll-out-basic-income-soon
 
I tend to think they'll be a money drop to the population when the economy starts to crank up again after the virus - put money in peoples pockets so they can go and spend it in the local grocers, the local butchers, the local pub, the local lap dancing club .. much better to do that than to try and have it filter through via the banks .. we're already seeing them holding back on the loans the government is guarenteeing ..

As for something more general, when AI starts to take over peoples jobs - and it will be here far sooner than I think a lot of people realise - then there's going to be have to be something in place. Maybe now is a good time to start introducing such things instead of just trying to go back to the ways things were.
 
TheFair86 said:
Who does dirty / dangerous / hard / expensive to train for jobs if you can live well and do watercolours?
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UBI provides the minimum needed to get by. The people who will do the jobs that need doing will be the ones that want to earn over and above the minimum needed to get by. The difference is it gives you the freedom to pursue something that you want to do, rather than just accepting anything in order to pay the bills.

It's radical but in theory it can work. One thing that doesn't get mentioned in any pro-UBI articles is how immigration is handled. If we are literally giving money away each month, how do we prevent people from coming here just for the handout without just shutting the borders completely to any new workers?
 
boromike85 said:
UBI provides the minimum needed to get by. The people who will do the jobs that need doing will be the ones that want to earn over and above the minimum needed to get by. The difference is it gives you the freedom to pursue something that you want to do, rather than just accepting anything in order to pay the bills.

It's radical but in theory it can work. One thing that doesn't get mentioned in any pro-UBI articles is how immigration is handled. If we are literally giving money away each month, how do we prevent people from coming here just for the handout without just shutting the borders completely to any new workers?
Click to expand...
You either bring the basic income on a global scale or those who immigrate are not entitled to it for a length of time.
 
Wilf said:
UBI - Its global not just England.
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Some countries £10 is enough to buy food to last you a month and others it won't buy you a day's worth. That would require all countries to be equal, using a single currency and under a single decision-making entity. That's even further away than UBI. It's impossible to implement a worldwide anything but a minimum payment to everyone in the world could never work.

UBI just replaces the benefits system. Instead of jobseekers, pensions, DLA etc all being separate they are all paid the same amount but expanded to all people. No eligibility/administration costs, no unfairness in someone else getting something for free.
 
If you give people right now £1k a month then you will get:

- No-one willing to work
- Youngsters refusing to leave home (washing done, food cooked, a grand for nights out on weekends that month, no chance they will move out).
- people dropping out of further education such as colleges and uni as when going gets tough it's easy to fall back on the guarenteed cash.
- drug problems. It's already a huge problem but it will get much worse. This will be a drugs benefit for a lot of people, especially on Teesside.

Absolutely against the idea as you can tell. Yes there are most definitely exceptions but I believe that the harder you try to improve yourself the better rewards you can achieve, and by giving a decent guaranteed income you are removing the motivation to achieve things.
 
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