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Re:The Fatal Trap UBI Boosters Keep Falling Into by ares623 on Friday November 28, 2025 @07:55PM (#46084295)
Why don’t fascist regimes push for UBI? Wouldn’t it be in their best interest to pay off the population unless they risk being “demonetised” completely?

Edit: I guess the oil kingdoms in the ME are kinda that

Re:The Fatal Trap UBI Boosters Keep Falling Into by gritten on Friday November 28, 2025 @08:04PM (#46084349)
Do you mean democratic regimes?

Fascism tends to reward work rate, contribution, cooperation, etc., and is typically nationalistic - there is no (Western) nation right now without an enormous proportion of ethnic foreigners whereby a UBI would effectively constitute a massive wealth transfer from the domestic population to immigrants (which is, needless to say, contrary to fascist objectives).

This is basically what we are seeing already, democratically, however. I know here in Australia it seems like there are neverending announcements of unfunded public programs to give out money and other resources to whichever group tugs at the voters' heartstrings most effectively. The coffers are dry, national debt is soaring, fraud is rampant, and yet I'm still positive I'll see a feel-good headline next week about the latest government initiative to "pay off" their electorate.

Re:The Fatal Trap UBI Boosters Keep Falling Into by bigyabai on Friday November 28, 2025 @08:27PM (#46084478)
I think they mean fascist, and it's a good question - will the common person toe the line if they get paid to accept it? We almost saw this in the MEFO bill era of the Nazi German economy, where the Wehrmacht's industrial demand reanimated the half-dead German manufacturers. Many poor German citizens got jobs and homes in this era, despite the ongoing tragedy.

Democracy is underpinned by populism, if the average person feels like UBI would harm the economy then they'll vote against it. Fascism, authoritarianism and planned economies can completely skip the public opinion portion and just start paying people out-of-pocket if they're liquid enough. We may see something similar here in the US as Trump considers a public tariff stipend to refute accusations of a recession: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2025/11/19/trump-2000-ta...

Re:The Fatal Trap UBI Boosters Keep Falling Into by wmf on Friday November 28, 2025 @09:33PM (#46084777)
Most authoritarian regimes are simply too poor to afford UBI (with the exception of oil as you noted). More generally, prosperity definitely reduces political discontent.