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0 pointsmitthrowaway21y ago0 comments

- Are you assuming that all these people also have employment income on top of their UBI? Or only UBI? The premise upthread seemed to be UBI in response to mass unemployment caused by automation. Are you sure renters will still have more money in their pockets, even with UBI?

- If they don't have employment, and incomes are $0, then in the absence of UBI, would rent also drop to $0? If not, then I think we're better off with UBI.

- These higher prices for rent and groceries seem like strong incentives for competition. Maybe we can't expect that in NIMBY San Francisco, but without a jobs market, the only attraction to live there is the weather. Why not move somewhere cheaper?

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dragonwriter1y ago

> Are you assuming that all these people also have employment income on top of their UBI

Any system with UBI requires other sources of income to exist (thr absence of such sources means that nothing of value is being produced for exchange, in which case any money printed is basically monopoly money and how you distribute it doesn't matter because it isn't doing anything), and a major premise of UBI has always been that it enables those transitionally deprived of income more freedom to reconfigure their lives and ramp up these sources of income (and does so with less redundant—with the progressive tax system—bureaucratic overhead) than do means- and behavior-tested welfare programs.

The particular mix of available other forms of income between wage labor, independent business, or capital don’t really change the basic arguments.

mitthrowaway2OP1y ago

Well, my question implies that being a landlord would be a remaining source of income, for starters. But if that landlord also owns the automated farms and factories producing consumer goods without labor, then the people they're renting to really might not have any other income. At any rate, where a UBI is substituting for employment income that someone used to earn, but is no longer able to, then I don't think the renter gains purchasing power to pay more for rent. (They do gain free time though).

dragonwriter1y ago

Yes, if you have a single capital owner that owns all productive assets, that's a serious problem that UBI won't solve.

The idea of adopting a downward-redistributive policy like UBI is to do it before that occurs.

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0 pointsmitthrowaway21y ago0 comments

- If they don't have employment, and incomes are $0, then in the absence of UBI, would rent also drop to $0? If not, then I think we're better off with UBI.

0 comments

dragonwriter1y ago

> Are you assuming that all these people also have employment income on top of their UBI

The particular mix of available other forms of income between wage labor, independent business, or capital don’t really change the basic arguments.

mitthrowaway2OP1y ago

dragonwriter1y ago

Yes, if you have a single capital owner that owns all productive assets, that's a serious problem that UBI won't solve.

The idea of adopting a downward-redistributive policy like UBI is to do it before that occurs.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse