Here's your social safety net
Like others, I have been reading the blogs today on Basic Income. This subject fascinates me. Such a lame idea seems to be getting so popular. Why? Quite simply, if people can't take responsibility for earning their own dough, the human race is scrimshawed. We have to be makers, not takers.
Get up off your fat rear end
Get up off your butt. You're not a victim. You're part of the problem and you don't deserve a Basic Income. Robos took your job? Find another or find something you can do. Unless you are mentally disabled, physically disabled, or underage, there's no reason you can't work as hard as anybody else. You don't need a shrink. You need to be thrown in the lake so you can learn to swim.
Make something people like to buy. Artwork. Song lyrics. Paper airplanes. Coffee toffee. Learn another trade that everybody will always need like catching fish, blacksmithing real tools that don't break out of the box, or brewing beer. Think people. There will always be a market for some things. Find your niche or create one.
The new social safety net
If you're not capable of that, here's your social safety net: Head over to Steemit, where money comes to those who post and vote. If you can write a few paragraphs or click a mouse, you can earn money. Just don't withdraw it for a few months. Power it up until you have some voting power, then your upvotes will be paying you money, too.
Yeah you can make money sitting on your butt. The fingers get the exercise. Money for posting and voting. That's some real Basic Income right there.
Basically:
You want to help people, in YOUR way (or your Party's way or your Leader's way) using YOUR (or your Party's or your Leader's) resources - have at it. Best of luck. Hope it works.
You want to help people in YOUR (or your party's or your Leader's) way, using MY resources - go fuck yourself.
Nobody talked about raising taxes. A basic income wouldn't take any resources from you that aren't taken today already (depending on your social class, but I don't assume you to belong to the winners of the current system). It's only about how they're distributed.
The majority would be better off when the tax jungle is gone and they don't have to be afraid of the social stigma welfare carries. The most obvious losers would be companies that rely on extra-cheap workforce, mandatory insurances, and subprime lenders. No sympathy for those guys from me.
I'm not sold on basic income, but we really need to consider it as a society. In the near future, with so many people losing jobs, I don't know how else the social system and economy is going to function. At least, I haven't seen anyone else propose another idea that really addresses the problem, the way basic income does. Yeah, no more taxes would be needed, I assume it would be within the footprint of existing costs. Just roll all the benefit programs together and cut people one nice check instead.
The social system and economy is NOT going to function. It is going to collapse. Those who have eyes to see have known that for quite some time.
Placing everyone under the murderous restrictions to freedom necessary to implement centralized welfare programs of any kind (FEMA camps?) is not a solution worth living under.
While I appreciate the attitude, I wonder if it is fair to assume the everyone is capable of learning how to produce enough to live.
We are all biased to expect others to be as capable as we are. What if that was not true?
Those more capable can take care of those less able. At no point is it acceptable to steal. It does society and civilization no favor or progress taking care of the poor and disabled through theft and the threat of violence. Simply a trade of undesirables, and i would argue the threat of violence or the imagined 'authority' to use such violence is far worse.
I agree that morality dictates that violence is not a solution to this problem. This means the following:
Many in power today advocate eugenics to reduce world population. Others advocate stealing from the rich. Others say let them die from starvation if they cannot produce value.
I hope to find a solution that enables these people to continue to provide value to society. We need a new kind of "factory work" that can put to use the average human mind in a way that is more effective than AI. Perhaps Human Batteries?
You said you read the articles, but you don't seem to have understood them.
Myself and all other proponents of a basic income I know are not the ones in need of it.
Your suggestion to create art, song texts or paper planes is surely appreciated by those working unnecessary shitjobs to feed their families, or don't find a job at all. Why didn't they think of that themselves?
You downvoted his article? I have lost some of my respect for you.
Damnit. I just started to feel a bit bad for it, and now you come here and reinforce that :D
Okay, I still don't see the satirical (or any other) value in the post, but I guess it's not spam and I reacted too emotionally. Blame taken, vote removed. Silencing opposing views is never a solution, no matter how harsh they are.
Yeah, maybe. I was kind of on the fence about it, so I didn't vote up or down. I think @pharesim probably did the right thing because of the click bait picture. We can make that editorial decision, can't we?
Wow. I sure didn't expect this to get dropped. The age old American tradition of satire, dating back to Benjamin Franklin. Don't downvote just because you disagree with someone's argument. You're no better than Reddit.
I downvoted because as an author and proponent I felt offended personally. May not have been your intention, but then you should've cut short on insults a bit.
Your generalizations and overall ignorance regarding the ongoing discussions don't make this a valuable post imo, and I stand to the downvote.
I read every one of them. And if you bothered to read my post, I addressed their arguments as well. Brevity is an art form. Did you really want a 9-pager to re-hash those arguments again? In times past, satire has sometimes been one of the only available tools for critiquing government. You were offended? Spare me. I'm offended that so many people are suggesting giving away free money to those who aren't working for it. There are some topics on Reddit that could use a moderator like you. Even over there, I have never downvoted something just because I disagreed with the view.
Of course ! All those people who cannot afford to feed themselves, or a roof over their heads could just invest the time to retrain themselves (provided they do not starve to death first...).
And the second suggestion really shows a very sheltered middle class background (hint: you need net access to use Steem).
Really missing the point of Basic Income
Yeah! Upvote for speaking your mind.