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comment by cgod
cgod  ·  2521 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: After Universal Basic Income, The Flood – Simon Sarris – Medium

Cool thing for the U.S. is that others will take the risk of implementing UBI before we start to think about it seriously. Save yourself the worry and hand wringing because other people and other countries will be laboratory for UBI.





veen  ·  2521 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Replace UBI with single-payer healthcare...and you know that it's probably gonna take more than that. ;)

snoodog  ·  2521 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Funny thing is that UBI costs almost as much per person as health insurance in the USA.

veen  ·  2520 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I would honestly want to know how many medical problems in life could be prevented by having a stable, indefinite income. I don't think it's insignificant.

user-inactivated  ·  2521 days ago  ·  link  ·  

On the other hand, UBI is fairly market orientated.

Here's some economy points, go forth and spend as you will while we stigmatize you for it is a damn sight more American than let's organize consumers into a massive state backed bloc and drive down costs.

veen  ·  2520 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Well on the other other hand, the stigma alone could make it politically infeasble and societally unacceptable. Ezra Klein made the point that even if someone figures out a workable and affordable UBI system, it will take a long time before people are willing to accept large swaths of people leeching off the government in something that isn't retirement.

snoodog  ·  2520 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You could probably just reword and remarked the standard tax deduction to be UBI. The problem is that you would have to quadruple it or so