What's the progressive argument against the UBI again? Doesn't the same argument apply to, say, Social Security?
I understand well the argument against an *inadequately low UBI*, but surely, in principle, a decent basic guaranteed standard of living is the socialist ideal, right? "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need"? -raghu. On Wed, Mar 2, 2016 at 1:19 PM, Eugene Coyle <[email protected]> wrote: > There is a consistent and powerful conservative policy threat to left > unity. Not about supporting or not supporting the Democrats but more > fundamental. > > Conservatives — and the establishment economists whether they consider > themselves liberals or conservative — see the Guaranteed Annual Income or > Basic Income Guarantee or Universal Basic Income as a way to deal with lack > of jobs and the advance of robots, digitization and artificial intelligence. > > This I find frightening, for it appeals as well to those with poor job > prospects or no job prospects, pacifying them in the struggle over fair > income distribution. It splits the population into those willing to settle > for scraps and those with a profound resentment of those willing to settle > for scraps. Endless resentment on both sides, yet not directed at > capitalism. > > Milton Friedman was a champion of Negative Income Taxes. The Earned > Income Tax Credit (EITC) was and is an introduction to this but only for > those with income in the first place. A more recent proposal, popular in > the WSJ, was a plan to head off a fight against globalization by reducing > the employees’ share of payroll tax. Many economists have even more > recently proposed a universal income as a way to deal with productivity > gains eating jobs. > > The Universal Basic Income (UBI) as it is being called in today’s NYT > http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/technology/plan-to-fight-robot-invasion-at-work-give-everyone-a-paycheck.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=mini-moth®ion=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below > > Conservatives recognize the income distribution issue as a deep threat and > seek to have the public discussion about UBI rather than the alternative of > cutting working hours with no cut in pay. The 1% can keep their money and > let the 99% fight over who gets a decent job and who gets subsistence. And > fight as well about what is the minimum subsistence to keep the pitchforks > from coming out. > > Even worse, the UBI does not lead on to changing the system but preserves > it. Cutting working hours is a path to system change. > > On these lists we spend much time disputing supporting or not supporting > Sanders as a Democrat. > > Supporting or not supporting Universal Basic Income is a discussion we > should be having. The alternative for dealing with the job shortage is to > sharply reduce standard working hours to raise wages and redistribute > income. > > Separately, cutting working hours is the most promising way, the only > promising way to deal with global warming. > > Gene > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >
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