Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by mfer 1210 days ago
One of the problems is that many people have a lot of debt when they go to retirement age as well as a lack of savings. For decades, people spend more than they earn and it's a habit.

UBI in this environment means the gov keeps feeding the consuming beast.

Financial issues are one of the top causes for divorce, having trouble sleeping, and more. UBI doesn't solve for the any of this when people spend more than they earn.

I'm only pointing out the deeper culture problem around money that UBI doesn't solve.

1 comments

I believe the consuming beast needs to continually be fed, and this will be precisely one of the primary drivers of putting in a program similar to Universal Basic Income. Without this, the business impact will result in layoffs, etc which will need to be stemmed through such "stimulus" programs.

However, since this has become an ingrained habit, this cannot be a short term stimulus, and will need to be continued.

Inflation as a result cannot be ignored obviously, but I suspect this will be ignored, and will cause significant drops in people's standard of living, and create huge divide in the lifestyles of those who rely on UBI like programs, and those who do not.