News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Young adults in L.A. to get $1k a month under new guarant... by xyzzyz on Wednesday October 12, 2022 @11:36PM (#33186883)
There is always a new reason why the most recent incarnation of socialism just didn’t happen to work out as expected this time around.
Re:Young adults in L.A. to get $1k a month under new guarant... by woodruffw on Wednesday October 12, 2022 @11:38PM (#33186910)
UBI (in its contemporary form) is most famous for being a product of neoliberal economic and political theory, not socialist economics. The only state in the US that has anything resembling UBI is Alaska[1], and you'd be hard-pressed to characterize them as "socialist."

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Permanent_Fund

Re:Young adults in L.A. to get $1k a month under new guarant... by Kim_Bruning on Wednesday October 12, 2022 @11:47PM (#33186980)
Most of the world has some amount of socialism mixed in.

Originally this was a strategy devised by Otto von Bismark, a Prussian conservative who thought providing concessions to workers might help keep the communists out of Germany. He succeeded.

Over time, it turned out that social benefits can actually be quite effective for other reasons too.

Today, many OECD countries are explicitly social-democratic. Some countries claim to not be socialist at all, but still do have some (possibly more limited) social programs (eg in education and health care).

Re:Young adults in L.A. to get $1k a month under new guarant... by cercatrova on Thursday October 13, 2022 @01:55AM (#33187731)
> Most of the world has some amount of socialism mixed in.

Why do people keep misusing the definition of socialism. Do workers own the means of production? If not, it's not socialism. Now I'm not a socialist but I'd like the words we use to have meaning so that we all know what we're collectively talking about.

Social benefits and social democracy != socialism, people should just use that term instead.

Re:Young adults in L.A. to get $1k a month under new guarant... by hypertele-Xii on Thursday October 13, 2022 @02:25AM (#33187902)
> Social benefits and social democracy != socialism

For so many instances of the word "social", it's difficult to see how we can't just tack -ism at the end and be happy.

Re:Young adults in L.A. to get $1k a month under new guarant... by least on Thursday October 13, 2022 @12:18AM (#33187183)
Richard Nixon was the closest a president has ever been to implementing UBI and one of the biggest proponents for UBI was Milton Friedman through the negative income tax.
Re:Young adults in L.A. to get $1k a month under new guarant... by gruez on Thursday October 13, 2022 @12:37AM (#33187295)
>one of the biggest proponents for UBI was Milton Friedman through the negative income tax.

A negative income tax is most definitely not UBI. You still have to work to get it, therefore it's not universal. It's a pure wage subsidy program.

Re:Young adults in L.A. to get $1k a month under new guarant... by least on Thursday October 13, 2022 @01:34AM (#33187612)
That is simply not true. If you did not work you would file an income tax with 0 earned income and be eligible for basic income up to the percentage of the break even point. If the break even point was 10k at a 50% rate a person with 0 income would be entitled to 5k.
Re:Young adults in L.A. to get $1k a month under new guarant... by akvadrako on Thursday October 13, 2022 @03:58AM (#33188444)
NIT and UBI are exactly the same, mathematically. You don't need to work to get it – instead your income starts negative.
Re:Young adults in L.A. to get $1k a month under new guarant... by SturgeonsLaw on Thursday October 13, 2022 @01:10AM (#33187487)
The whole point of UBI is that it's designed to preserve capitalism, it keeps people consuming and spending in the face of massive automation and job loss, because if masses of people are out of work and hungry, you will get a real revolution.

UBI keeps the means of production in the hands of those who already hold them.