Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0

Re:Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0 by marcus_holmes on Thursday July 30, 2020 @05:27AM (#23996157)

The question I can't answer is "what stops a nation voting itself more income?"

If every unscrupulous politician can promise to raise the base UBI rate to get elected, what stops that?

Obviously, inflation will fix it in the relatively short term, but that's not a good result. And there's an unscrupulous politician in power.

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Re:Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0 by account42 on Thursday July 30, 2020 @06:52AM (#23996679)

What's stopping a nation for voting itself more than 0 UBI now?

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Re:Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0 by growse on Thursday July 30, 2020 @08:09AM (#23997144)

What stops a nation voting itself lower taxes?

If every unscrupulous politician can promise to lower taxes to get elected, what stops that?

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Re:Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0 by marcus_holmes on Thursday July 30, 2020 @08:17AM (#23997212)

Politicians tend to promise to spend more taxes on projects that will benefit some segment of the population. In the UK "more money for the NHS" is a definite vote-winner.

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Re:Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0 by umvi on Thursday July 30, 2020 @06:20PM (#24003478)

Well, according to Benjamin Franklin (ostensibly),

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.”

So basically, any nation that increasingly votes itself more money stops being a nation pretty soon

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Re:Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0 by imtringued on Thursday July 30, 2020 @05:41AM (#23996245)

There's a more general problem. What's the right amount of UBI? Even with the best intentions someone will be unhappy.

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Re:Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0 by marcus_holmes on Thursday July 30, 2020 @08:18AM (#23997220)

True. But you can never please all the people all the time ;)

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Re:Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0 by jopsen on Thursday July 30, 2020 @11:27AM (#23999271)

I guess the amount that will generate GDP growth..

In the end, it probably doesn't have to be perfect, just better than status quo.

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