[ChristopherM]

Well, considering I haven't had a paycheck in 18 months...

I would quit working on the product I've been slaving over, a basic income means horrific taxes. I didn't work hard so they could be confiscated.

Now that I've got a basic income I switch gears, I start growing food, fishing, hunting. So that I can sell for untraceable, untaxable cash. I also start tutoring at the local college in math and computer science, once again cash only.

I convert the cash I keep stockpiling into precious metals, gold, platinum, palladium. They take up little space, and will be easy to transport once society descends into chaos. I expect it will take at least 20 years. At first most people will keep working, but when they start seeing other people who seem to be happy not doing anything they will start asking themselves how stupid they are to keep funding everyone else's party and they themselves will drop out.

Before things get too bad, I slip out of the country. Most likely a sailboat out of Florida, the story is I'm heading to the Caribbean, except once far out at sea I head for my real destination, never looking back.

[CocaKoala]

I'm just curious; what kind of lifelong, nonstop party do you see people living on 7.82 an hour? Especially considering that now they're partying all the time instead of working 40 hours a week? 15k a year doesn't go very far; I know I wouldn't be happy earning so little, especially without a job to occupy my time.

edit: For clarification, I pulled the 15k figure from the currently rated top comment. If you feel that a basic income would provide significantly more than that, I'd love to see what sort of figures you consider plausible.

[ChristopherM]

I think you completely missed my point about making money in a black market. If I'm working 40 plus hours a week trying to scrape by on minimum wage, I wouldn't have time to carefully execute black market transactions. With the entire week available, I can focus 100% on it. I can deal with people I know personally who would have bought the legal products from a store anyway. I wouldn't feel the least bit guilty or wrong about what I was doing either because I would feel that the rules I have sacrificed for my entire life were tossed out the window and I completely wasted my youth.

Another thing, it really doesn't take that much money to live. With some caveats, you have no debt. You live a simple life. Or like me, you already own all of your toys and luxuries. The thing is, I am talking from experience. I consulted in the bay for $30k a month back in 2012. Even so, I rented a room in a house with other people renting a room. I shared one bathroom with 3 other people, I got 1/2 the top shelf in the refrigerator. Was it worth it? Damn right it was, $750 a month everything including high speed internet. I wasn't there much anyway. I ended up quitting after 8 months. That's right, I could have made another $90k before they would have let me go, but it wasn't worth it. I did not come from money, I have no family whatsoever. I worked a 3rd shift factory job to put myself through college. So don't get any ideas that I am operating and behaving from a privileged position.

As for nonstop party, this is a huge problem for language. You see everyone doesn't have the same definition for the same words, so when two people discuss something using the same exact words they may have very different pictures in their head AND they assume the other person is thinking the exact same thing.

My idea of a nonstop party is sleeping in, taking a nap whenever I feel like it (I do that now). It's having the freedom to decide I really want to cook an interesting meal and just doing it, as in I have nothing else on my schedule I have to work it around. It's buying a $299 ski season pass in Incline village and going skiing since I live 0.5 miles from the lift. It's the freedom to research and learn about any topic I want to, and I don't have to stop because of other obligations. In fact there is so much interesting stuff out there to learn and read; knowing that I had an obligation to "occupy my time" would be a living hell. It was, that's why I quit my job.

I have no idea what they would pay as a living wage, I don't think $15k would do it. Keep in mind I am 100% against the idea to begin with, I just wrote a comment about what I would do if it came to pass. I am very, very good at adapting to situations and exploiting them. I'm also very good at figuring out how to opt out, if you really didn't want to work, you too would find a way to do it.

I'm not sure if this helped you understand my point of view, but I will finish by saying "One man's heaven is another man's hell". If you really want to understand how this will play out you need to realized that not everyone is as responsible as you are, their idea of a good time may be totally different than yours, it might be cable TV, a carton of cigarettes and a case of beer.

* I'm living pretty damn well on Lake Tahoe, $24k a year, I drive a Land Rover. I ski, bike ride in the summer, hike. And I'm currently working on a product. I have never been happier.

[3rd3]

Won’t machines take over most labor making unemployment normality?