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Re:Capitalism Has Gone Off the Rails by dragonwriter on Monday November 03, 2014 @05:01PM (#8553843)
> Considering everyone beyond the retirement age is already effectively getting a basic income

No, they aren't. Presumably, this is intended to refer to Social Security, which is not at all like a basic income (even aside from age):

1) Eligibility to receive benefits at all isn't unconditional (again, even discounting age), its based on qualifying contributions -- your own or someone else's -- and other factors.

2) The level of benefits if you are eligible isn't constant, but varies based on the same factors that go into eligibility.

> or that anyone on unemployment is getting a temporary basic income

Unemployment insurance is also not like basic income, as the benefit level as controlled by qualifying income in the preceding period.

> or that if you ignore the beuracratic overhead and injustice of welfare then food stamps + section 9 + the free electric programs sum to a near basic income

You probably mean section 8 housing vouchers, but, again, nothing like a basic income; all of those are conditional program with both means and behavioral tests (and in many cases aren't fungible benefits, so they also have use restrictions).

Re:Capitalism Has Gone Off the Rails by zanny on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @03:02AM (#8555532)
There is a reason we usually prefix BI with universal. No, there are few programs that are legitimately universal, but every instance of non-universality you describe just describes a bureaucratic overhead nightmare that severely cripples any potential efficiency of a public works project.

The jump is not from anarchy to UBI. It is from conditional basic income to unconditional.

Also, I might be mixing up my district nines and section eights. I wonder why...