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Comment by wing-_-nuts | Hacker News Reader

You cut most of our bureaucratic social safety net (food stamps, disability, social security, etc) and replace it with a system where everyone gets enough for the bare basics. If you were smart, you'd fund it with a carbon tax.

In all honesty I don't see UBI becoming a thing until we start automating ourselves into unemployment. People say this would increase inflation. Maybe. Let's trial it with 1% of the population and find out.

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That's a tad bit insane - disabled people won't be able to find jobs, whether you want it or not. You are pushing them deeper in poverty by giving them the same amount of money as you give to someone who chooses not to work.

Continuing to have additional assistance for people who need more is not ruled out by what parent said.

Well I think for ubi to accomplish its goals you'd have to index it to the federal poverty line. I used to be on disability and let me tell you, the FPL would have been a drastic improvement. People really don't understand how little someone on disability makes. It was not enough for me to live a remotely dignified life even in a very low cost of living area.

> until we start automating ourselves into unemployment

Still waiting for steam engines to replace human labour...

John Henry would have a word.

There will still be those who spend all their UBI on drugs or whatever and have nowhere to stay. Do we just let them die on the street since there's no more social safety nets?

I assume with more 'normal' people being liberated from the yoke of work there might be more volunteers and volunteer initiatives to help those in need out. The question is how much of the self-destructive behaviour if a product of a 'sick' society where mental health treatment seems prohibited by the cost.

There are those that do so today. Given we have no real mental health facilities, those people simply wind up in jail on drug possession charges. It's inhumane, yeah, but I don't think replacing things with UBI would make it more so. Maybe one of these days we'll actually get our act together to help those that need it most.

> In all honesty I don't see UBI becoming a thing until we start automating ourselves into unemployment.

From a political stability perspective, I expect this would be wise to get in front of.

From a political perspective, it is easier to profit (in terms of political capital or actual capital) from a crisis than it is to prevent it. If you prevent it, then you've spent a lot of capital all for most people to say "well, nothing even happened!". It is a sad state of affairs.

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