| > you have to grind hours doing miserable things largely unrelated to survival to get enough money to _not die_. Working to not die, isn't that the definition of survival? Or, as Rick Sanchez might say, grinding at your job is just surviving with extra steps. > I really believe that most people will still want to be useful and make cool things people like I really want to believe this, and it's true there are a lot of us that will do just that. The issue is that there are a lot of traps and vices people can fall into. Alcoholism, drug use, even seemingly benign stuff like chasing digital approval are very ugly when taken to extremes. What snaps most people out of this stuff and keeps us in check is the fear of hitting rock bottom -- that is, you know that if you don't change you're likely going to lose everything / die / etc. I've seen it in numerous lives, its only when they hit rock bottom that they decide something needs to change (that something being them). I know a former heroin user that destroyed every relationship in his life (including family) to get his hands on the stuff, and only changed when he decided that being homeless and waking up naked in a crack house was enough. UBI takes away rock bottom. What's to stop a drug addict when there is no downside to staying high all the time? As much as I would like to believe in UBI helping people, I would wager that there is a positive correlation between the people that UBI could help the most and people most susceptible to addiction. Maybe that's my pessimism leaking through, but I don't think UBI is a solution for them. Again, I'm ALL for having better social safety nets etc. It's just hard to define what better is. You can meet a man's physical needs and still starve his soul. |
For me personally at least, why I really want UBI is for soul-starving needs specifically. My job I fully believe is either net-neutral or hurting the world, and after some amount of looking have not been able to find one that's both clearly positive and not exploited. If I was given UBI I would quit, maybe volunteer to teach one class a day in a high school, or help run a boardgame cafe or makerspace. There would be no worry of putting people out a job since they'd be getting UBI too.
Right now I feel souless. I'm living well but through some glitch in the system that rewards people for writing useless code on a project that I'm expecting will get canned (the last two were thrown away) and spending time on hackernews. I want to be doing the useful things that currently don't pay well enough to be live without anxiety.
I think a lot of people working exploited jobs would also benefit, for the reasons you already know if you want a general safety net. Being able to quit without fear is a lot of leverage and would make things a lot more equal between employer / employee. Current unemployment benefits don't give anything if you quit (instead of fired) and a UBI style no-questions-asked solves this.
Addictions / vices are certainly a problem, and could definitely be worse with UBI perpetually enabling. I don't really have a great answer to this. The current system does not seem very kind to addicts without external support either, so I'm not sure how much worse this would be either way but definitely something to think about. Hadn't really considered that angle before.
Either way, I'm not 100% convinced UBI is the best way to add a safety net. I do think it would have some pretty profound effects on what work people would be wiling to do, most of which would be positive. It's a pretty simple / meme-able demand the same way 'fight for 15' or 'healthcare for all' is, that's really all the pitch i have for it tbh
What sort of changes are you hoping for?
(edit: is there a comment reply limit? if this is the end im happy to give an email or phone # to continue somewhere else. legit this is the only pleasant hackernews comment thread i've been a part of on this or my alt so thank you very much <3)