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Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by Florin_Andrei on Friday March 21, 2014 @08:34PM (#7446129)
> The problem is money = power and society is hell bent on gaining power.

A major source of trouble now is that money is tightly coupled with politics. It boggles the mind how it's not universally understood that politics should be entirely de-coupled from private money. All of politics should run 100% (including elections) on a public fund.

Unless this is done, very few things of true substance will be fixed.

> The real solution is to move to a resource managed economy that eliminates money all together.

I don't think that's doable unless we've made work entirely optional. When AI and robots could do any job we don't want to do, then you could instate some form of basic income, or even your more radical idea.

But until then, it's going to be very, very hard to change things in a fundamental way.

Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by iopq on Friday March 21, 2014 @09:40PM (#7446633)
100% on a public fund? So I should be paying for the elections of Republicans and Democrats even though they are private parties that may for no reason exclude me?
Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by bryanlarsen on Friday March 21, 2014 @10:16PM (#7446874)
It's done this way in many other countries. For example, in Canada, each party receives $2 per vote received in the last election to campaign in the next election. Corporate donations are banned, although small donations by individuals are still allowed.

You're paying now through the distortion of the electoral process and the indirect increase in your cost of goods and services (the hundreds of billions spent on elections comes from somewhere). Don't you think it's worth it for your taxes to go up $2 to eliminate those costs?

Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by sp332 on Saturday March 22, 2014 @04:47AM (#7448324)
We can ban corporate donations without raising taxes, and without giving people's money to parties they don't support.
Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by justinreeves on Friday March 21, 2014 @10:02PM (#7446776)
Or.... you could still run, but not as a Republican or a Democrat?
Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by iopq on Sunday March 23, 2014 @10:15PM (#7456329)
And lose, like everyone else who tried. When was the last time a president wasn't a Republican or a Democrat? That's right, when he was a Whig.
Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by justinreeves on Saturday March 29, 2014 @11:22PM (#7495079)
>And lose, like everyone else who tried.

You mean like everyone else who's tried before moving to public funded elections, with restrictions on campaign donations?

Of course I can't guarantee that one change will result in a third-party getting meaningful representation, but it's at least a start.

Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by Houshalter on Saturday March 22, 2014 @10:32AM (#7449181)
>All of politics should run 100% (including elections) on a public fund.

That's a horrible idea. The dominate parties would become even more dominate with the backing of the government. I do not approve of my tax money being spent on ridiculous political commercials either.