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Re:Amazon executives are worried they'll run out of people t... by pydry on Wednesday June 16, 2021 @11:09AM (#27529375)
UBI is often viewed on the right as a cost neutral way of spreading social Security spending around so that Bill Gates, the unemployed and the permanently disabled all get the same $290 check in the mail every month.

The upside being lower spending on things like testing eligibility, the downside being that either the cost balloons to about $4-6 trillion a year or you basically just accept that some people are not gonna be able to survive.

Re:Amazon executives are worried they'll run out of people t... by sangnoir on Wednesday June 16, 2021 @01:38PM (#27531243)
> just accept that some people are not gonna be able to survive.

Their arguments against unemployment benefits are instructive. I don't think a livable UBI is a possibility in the current US political climate, doubly so since it cannot be sustained by income taxes on a shrunken labor base, necessitating more taxes on robot companies.

Re:Amazon executives are worried they'll run out of people t... by pydry on Wednesday June 16, 2021 @02:45PM (#27532003)
>I don't think a livable UBI is a possibility in the current US political climate

I can't help but wonder sometimes if that isn't the point for some people.

A raised minimum wage has the potential to become expensive. Pipe dreams, meanwhile, are free.