LOS ANGELES – Bernie Sanders made the “Fight for $15” a central part of his campaign in 2016.
But a new method to increase wages and reduce poverty is gaining traction in the U.S.
Universal Basic Income, or UBI, is a form of social security where the government provides every citizen with monthly cash payments – no strings attached – to cover their basic expenses.
Most supporters propose $1,000 dollars per month – enough money to keep every citizen in the U.S. above the poverty line.
The concept is actually not new. In 1795, Thomas Paine, one of America’s Founding Fathers, wrote about the need for a basic income in his pamphlet Agrarian Justice.
UBI also gained popularity in the 1960s and 70s when it was advocated by thinkers as disparate as Martin Luther King, Jr., free-market economist Milton Friedman, and even President Richard Nixon.
Now, UBI is in vogue again – especially in Silicon Valley.
Some see it as a way to protect workers who will become displaced by widespread automation.
At the World Government Summit in Dubai, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, “I think ultimately we will have to have some kind of universal basic income. I don’t think we are going to have a choice.”
Others think UBI can spur innovation and entrepreneurship.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, said in a commencement speech at Harvard, “We should explore ideas like universal basic income to give everyone a cushion to try new things.”
Strangely enough, some conservatives like the idea as well. Libertarian backers of UBI see it as a way to eliminate social welfare programs and reduce bureaucracy.
Some states have already adopted measures that incorporate elements of a guaranteed basic income.
Alaska has distributed some of its revenue from drilling oil to every resident (including children) since 1982. This takes the form of an annual payment ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 dollars.
This past June, Hawaii’s state legislature unanimously passed a bill commissioning state agencies to study UBI as a way to provide financial security to all Hawaiians.
Only time will tell if universal basic income is truly the answer to reducing poverty in an uncertain economic future.
http://www.fox10phoenix.com/entertainment/fox-content-hub/269522248-story
When everything is becoming automated, what other option is there?
Going off grid is impossible, since nobody in this country own their home. More jobs are either going over seas or becoming automated.
NO…..not as long as the taxman has his hand out and markets are manipulated and…and…and….
It’s just Jewish bolshevik communism. It fits right into the New World Order’s agenda, everybody will live happily ever after.
That also means there will be no middle class.
One class.
…one class to serve the “elite”.
“Universal Basic Income, or UBI, is a form of social security where the government provides every citizen with monthly cash payments – no strings attached – to cover their basic expenses.”
No strings attached???
Except the one attached to the plug the so-called ‘government’ will pull when it’s ready to.
This is no valid solution to poverty… short term at best.
#1 I had to work and pay into the pot for over 4.5 decades to get social security, now the bastards want to just hand it out to anybody and everybody. They should have told us that 30 years ago.
Even if they had, Bob, they still would have stolen it from us under some other pretext.
When it comes to mammon-grabbing schemes, they’ve got a plethora of stand-bys waiting in the wings.
Billionaires don’t pay fair tax. When you have punks like Mark Zuckerjew making hundreds of millions a year, your never going to have a fair distribution of wealth. This wall kisser can kiss my ass.
This POS wants AI to take your job.
UBI could end poverty.
But killing off all the poor people would be more cost effective.
No idea how to post a meme:
“PowerBall $1.3 billion divided by US population, 300 million = $4.33 million for each person.
(Sure wish Henry would go to Disqus format, which would ALSO bring a lot more traffic and followers to FTTWR – and potential sponsors)
Disqus would be a boon for FTT.
“PowerBall $1.3 billion divided by US population, 300 million = $4.33 million for each person.”
1.3 billion (aka 1300 million) divided by 300 million is closer to 4.33
I wanted to cover this story today but ran out of time, I was going to draw parallels to the Healthcare Bill and Minimum Wage. Maybe I’ll hit it tomorrow.
Isn’t that what they call “minimum wage”?
Yea, look how that turned out. The Zionists went and created stagflation. So a universal income ain’t gonna do jack shit.
They are trying to implement Commie economics.
Here’s a piece of advice that proves Commie economics doesn’t work:
No competition, no improvement.
Hell, just look at the people in Argentina. They have this and no one wants to do anything. No motivation, no desire to improve themselves and they wonder why they still live in a 3rd world atmosphere. Sure there’s a lot of corruption but that’s only part of it.
We need multiple competing currencies and highly liquid assents open for trade on the free market, not taxes at gun point and suckling the tit of the oppressor.
Let private charity take care of the less fortunate, even now amid high taxation America is extremely generous, that would only increase if we keep all of our own money/assets/wealth.
That sounds like a great idea, however, those in charge have no intention of improving anybody, especially the fortunes of the middle class. The system is set to steal all the money, including that which we intend to keep for ourselves.
I travel to Argentina often and can assure you that its no longer the 3rd world country most americans think of. It is not the way you describe it. As a matter of fact, this nation is more “3rd world” than argentina.
If twenty men and twenty women were shot into space from a planet where overpopulation had come to the point of starvation due to a lack of resource, and these twenty men and twenty women, being shot randomly into space, managed to land upon a virgin planet, free of any other human occupation, who would the planet belong to? Ten thousand generations later, who would the planet belong to, noting that all survived to the present via at least minimal substance? What would be the standard for any one, two, or ten to claim superior ownership and superior right to superior benefit thereof?
Our original constitution proclaimed no corruption of blood, yet the many are born into servitude to the few and it is evident that those claiming superior possession have asserted themselves through fraud, theft, murder, and slavery.
At this point in the ballgame, where is the legitimate claim to anything?
“… it is evident that those claiming superior possession have asserted themselves through fraud, theft, murder, and slavery.”
War by Deception.
We’ve ALWAYS been at war, Henry, but it’s been mostly covert (up until recently, at any rate)… which is why most don’t recognize it for what it is.
They soon will.