It is true that money won’t bring you happiness, but not having enough money to survive on provably brings unhappiness. Just because the first is impossible doesn’t mean that no-one should try to fix the second problem. As for guaranteed self-fulfilling work, again it won’t bring happiness by itself but it will cut down on mental illness from people who are currently in bad jobs or unable to work.
It does seem like the capitalist, just like the cynic, knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
I wonder what UBI payouts will look like in 20-30 years when unemployment rates really start shooting up? How about the jobs program? One would assume the guaranteed jobs will pay more than doing nothing at all. Also, what’s happening with healthcare? I would assume that some sort of Medicare-for-all program is necessary, otherwise UBI would just be how people pay for healthcare, which would just be a broader version of Medicare expansion under the ACA with even more useless, exepensive bureaucratic fattening (although I suppose the jobs program could staff it.)
Okay, so we have three gigantic multi trillion dollar programs- UBI, WPA II, and Medicare-4-All. I feel like it’s generous of me to guess the cost for all three, in twentyish years will reside in the 10-15 trillion $$/yr range.
So, what I’m asking of this is, will the 1% pay for that? Or, instead will they pay for private special forces, walled compounds, or maybe even actually just pay (buy? continue to own?) the government to handle dissent via state violence and all-encompassing surveillance?
I think the assumption is that in the ideal scenario the 1% will pay for it because we start actually fucking taxing them seriously and gaoling them if they don’t pay up. How realistic that is, of course…
I live in the Chicago area. For nearly 60 years government at all levels has pumped millions [probably billions] of dollars into the south & west sides in an effort “to help and eliminate misery”. The number of assaults and murders are horrendous! Widespread drug use. Gangs. “Safe zones” for children to walk to school [why can’t police provide the protection?]. Go ahead and look at the news about Chicago.
Be very very careful when accepting government help…
The stories don’t explicitly deal with this. We know at points there’s still human exploration and colonization. And I think it’s mentioned that in later points in Smith’s timeline we have forgotten much of our history and arts. And much of the science or non-automated service is hidden or forgotten or performed by the underpeople (uplifted animals).
I do think that in a situation where education has no end goal, or job at the end, where it’s really only for it’s own sake might take a certain type personality. It’s not an individual stagnation either in those stories, it’s a societal one, humanity no longer advances much or takes any joy in advancement.
And I fully support your plan but I am concerned you will be wearing those underpants in a tent and being terribly distracted by hunger, heat, wind, rain, and cold. So, it’s probably a good idea to find a source of income too.
One of the jobs was planting trees, which was helpful in dealing with the dust bowl problem -which was essentially a man made problem caused by intensive agriculture in an area that traditionally didn’t have enough rain to support it and since they replaced the native buffalo grass, a perennial that held moisture in the roots, with an annual and tractor plowing etc.
I personally don’t think you need to do make work programs that fill holes, but there is a lot of work that can be done that is useful but not necessarily profitable from a “capitalist” point of view. There are many needs including daycare, early childhood education, elder care (The fastest growing job in the rustbelt I believe is elder care nurse - far outnumbering any coal workers)
Andy Yang (who’s running for president in 2020) proposes a UBI that is 1000 per month, so not enough to live on but allows for people to deal with emergencies, save up to move where there is work etc, improve education)
I did. 2016 represented a historic spike in homicides. The rate dropped 16% in 2017, and the city is currently on pace for another double digit decline in rate for 2018. Non-violent crime never suffered the same spike that homicides did between 2015-2016. Noted here as well, rated for all crime are drastically lower than they were in the early 90’s.
Across the years of the homicide spike, G remained constant in Chicago. Aside from that, this is a functionally useless statement. What kind of “government help” are we talking about? For example, I know that public housing in Chicago was built intentionally on the cheap and without regard to livability, and like public housing across the country was then starved of maintenance funding, assuring eventual decay. But that housing isn’t why the murder rate spiked, recently or ever, because poverty doesn’t correlate with violent crime particularly well. Violent crime, homocide in particular, does correlate quite well with the availability of guns, however. So maybe the government help you’re referencing is the Supreme Court over turning Chicago’s handgun ban? Or the general weakening of gun laws in Illinois? Or the nearly non-existent gun laws in Indiana?
It’s not just at the “low end” of income jobs, either. There are artificial shortfalls of trained physicians, nurses, counselors, and other skilled professionals. It’s pretty transparent that the shortfall in physicians is intentional, manufactured by trade associations to inflate the income of their members. The US could train twice as many physicians, and reduce hours and stress of doctors - but the highest-paid physicians would probably need to accept a pay cut. It would be worth it for most, as the physicians with the highest QOL scores are salaried in systems where they don’t have to run a business and do crap-tons of paperwork (see Kaiser Permanente and, believe it or not, the VA).
Though I remember one of the first pros Fatality said he had a pretty strict exercise regime because you need the energy to focus in a tournament setting.
Warehousing poor people in government-built ghettos isn’t going very far to meet their needs, and meeting the needs of the poor to alleviate their misery is what my previous post and this discussion thread are addressing. Blindly throwing money at a problem is rarely effective, except when politicians need to be able to tell their constituents and backers “Look! I’m doing something!”
I didn’t see anything in your post demonstrating that government programs caused crime, or that truly meeting the needs of the poor is causatively linked to murder. I’m just seeing the same old, tired conservative talking points.
Thank you for responding and I do respect your view points [and your civility too! ]
Keep in mind the warehousing of people in ghettos was caused by government policy by those who sought to help. If meeting the needs of the poor hasn’t worked for nearly 50 years, then how is UBI/Guaranteed Job suddenly going to make a difference?
Thanks for your reply and I respect your view points and civility
Yes, housing was built on the cheap and starved of maintenance. All true. But by who? Government. Yes, your government created this problem and let it exist for over 40 years.
And I agree that being poor does not equate to violence.
I do not own or want a gun, but I respect the 2nd Amendment.
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