[tpainton]

Atlas shrugged... and the leaches attacked. I find it hard to believe Swit doesn't already have some welfare system that provides for those who actually need it... but now, 30k a year just for breathing? Sounds like communism to me.... only you don't have to produce anything. Utopianism like this doesn't last. Eventually you run out of payers. it's human nature to eventually grow tired of working hard so someone else doesn't have to. When that time comes, you either join the leaches or you leave the environment. Eventually, you always end up with a negative balance. It is doomed to failure.. Eventually.

[rsynnott]

> Sounds like communism to me...

Yes, this is exactly what happened in communist countries. That's why everyone hated Stalin so much; he kept giving people money for free.

In real life, basic income has mostly been a popular idea with liberal socialists and with libertarians; Bertrand Russell suggested it, but so did Milton Friedman. It very much isn't popular amongst communists, however.

[tpainton]

I agree. However, in communist countries (in which my co-workers lived (ex-Soviet)) The job was just a symbol. There would be department stores that sold hardly anything, with 3 people manning a cash register. This is no different than what Swit proposes.. It's just Swit has chosen to forgo the mock job.

[rsynnott]

The Soviet fake-job thing was really more a failure of central planning; it's not like the Soviets deliberately set out to create fake jobs. The intent is very different, and of course a recipient of basic income would be free (and indeed expected) to have a proper job too.

[wooter]

woah now, libertarians are very much against wealth redistribution which is what this is.

[garg]

With the ongoing automation of everything and a population reaching 7.5 billion, a basic income or a standard of living is going to be inevitable.

[tpainton]

Right, we can't ever expect the masses to learn advanced skills that will be needed in the next cyclic revolution. This has to be the most negative thing I have heard all month. It's akin to saying, 'Our people are so incapable of moving with the times, we just have to throw them food.'

[acuozzo]

The assumption is that as automation goes up, demand for people with even "advanced skills" goes down.

That is, if all N billion of us "[move] with the times", then the jobs still won't be there for us to fill.

[da02]

Are you saying you are against: democratized wealth re-distribution, democratized theft, and charity at gunpoint?

How did you "see the light"? Was it Rand or someone else?

[tpainton]

Hard work and payoff. Food stamps and welfare doesn't buy trips to Bora Bora..