Universal Basic Income

[g5000]

"We are experiencing a higher than average call volume ."

Every time.

Uh, that isn't how averages work...

Supposedly, if you curse your head off, you get put through to a human more quickly.

This seems to be true in the times I've tried it. The f-bomb works wonders.

Also, my family used to be shocked when I started shouting "REPRESENATIVE! REPRESENTATIVE! REPRESENTATIVES!" But it works.

Now I see commercials where people do that and my family turns their heads and stare at me with admiration and wonder.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Supposedly, if you curse your head off, you get put through to a human more quickly.

This seems to be true in the times I've tried it. The f-bomb works wonders.

Also, my family used to be shocked when I started shouting "REPRESENATIVE! REPRESENTATIVE! REPRESENTATIVES!" But it works.

Now I see commercials where people do that and my family turns their heads and stare at me with admiration and wonder.

I had to do EXACTLY THAT when trying to lead a large remote meeting just about 2 weeks ago. Several people got to watch.

 

[g5000]

Like, yachts?

More like electric cars.

But I suppose there will be the yacht-equivalent robot companions. Deluxe models which not only keep you company, but also carry out hits on your business competitors and bribe politicians and slap your trophy wife around.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

More like electric cars.

So all the people who own 2 Teslas now will own a Tesla and a Scarlett android?

Who would these people be? I don't see many of them at the grocery store.

Point being, I don't see the android thing scaling down and becoming ubiquitous, like cell phones.

Maybe like a Teddy Ruxpin version, haha

 

[g5000]

"I'm sorry, honey. I'm leaving you for the RX-2395 Kim Bassinger option."

 

[g5000]

So all the people who own 2 Teslas now will own a Tesla and a Scarlett android?

Who would these people be? I don't see many of them at the grocery store.

Point being, I don't see the android thing scaling down and becoming ubiquitous, like cell phones.

Maybe like a Teddy Ruxpin version, haha

Yeah exactly. Teddy Ruxpin. It doesn't have to be a humanoid companion. It can be a teddy bear or a porcelain doll.

Or even a simple headset.

We're almost there.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Yeah exactly. Teddy Ruxpin. It doesn't have to be a humanoid companion. It can be a teddy bear or a porcelain doll.

Or even a simple headset.

We're almost there.

Oh, well, that's a far cry from "a fully functional Scarlett Johanssen".

We already have what you describe. I can load AI into a blow up doll with a speaker.

When porn goes away, I will buy in more. But I don't think that's happening.

 

[g5000]

Oh, well, that's a far Cary from "a fully functional Scarlett Johanssen".

We already have what you describe. I can load AI into a blow up doll with a speaker.

A hundred years ago, if you told someone everyone in America would own a machine which could do the things our PCs do, they would not have believed you.

I'm optimistic about the Scarlett Johansen thing. For everyone.

We are incapable of even imagining what the future holds. It's going to be really cool, though. I envy my kids.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

A hundred years ago, if you told someone everyone in America would own a machine which could do the things our PCs do, they would not have believed you.

No doubt. And we simplified those machines in many ways. No more tubes. Smaller size. Cheaper materials. Faster manufacturing.

But.. how many moving parts, in a computer? Why, it's ZERO, if you use a solid state drive. Save for cooling fans.

I remember the wonder and the marveling at the Disney Animatronics at Disneyworld in the 70s and 80s.

Did we get a George Washington on every porch? No, we got Chuck E Cheese.

What aren't cars now cheaper? They are more expensive than ever. By a long shot.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

I'm optimistic about the Scarlett Johansen thing. For everyone.

Ha, a guy's gotta dream

 

[BackAgain]

It's there for everyone to see. Sorry.

And we all could have predicted you would say it anyway.

Your lie is now manifest for all to see.
Your lies are predictable.

And you’re not even honest enough to admit.

But, as we’ve both now noted: it’s there for all to see.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

We are incapable of even imagining what the future holds. It's going to be really cool, though. I envy my kids.

Very true. For those who can afford it.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

Does the earned income tax credit functions like this by providing financial support to low-income workers?

 

[jbander]

Man has always been inventive and almost every new idea was to make a job or product easier. So we have had little men standing in the corner saying all the jobs will be taken away because of these new idea. Never happened, never will. For instance many new products would be in demand with more equatable distribution of wealth. Way way less money stuck in mattresses. Just think of the demand that would be created with let say 50% more income for every person in the middle class and/or the poor.

 

[22lcidw]

I have read all, or almost all, of Thomas Paine's writings. I think we have a user on this forum who has adopted Paine's name.

Thomas Paine is perhaps most well-known to Americans as being the author of Common Sense, a pamphlet which inspired every patriot to independence.

He also published a series of pamphlets under the title American Crisis. The most famous line most of us have heard from that series is, "These are the times which try men's souls."

Lesser known today, but quite famous during its time, was The Age of Reason. In this three part tome written after we gained independence, Paine completely deconstructed the Christian Bible. He ripped it to pieces.

Paine was an advocate of Deism.

The Age of Reason was a huge bestseller in the US. and led to a revival of deism here.

Not so well known today is Paine's Agrarian Justice.

Like most of our Founders, Paine believe in Natural Rights. He believed "landed property" was an inevitable violation of Natural Rights that needed to be mitigated as the poor were worse off under such a system than when humans had lived in a state of nature.

Paine's solution was for America to provide a tidy sum to every American who reached the age of 21, and to provide an annual sum to everyone who arrived at the age of 50.

The latter half is Social Security. The former is a precursor to a universal basic income, though Paine intended it to be a one time payment so the poor could buy cows or other means to support themselves.

What? Social Security proposed way back in 1797? And UBI, too?!?

It's a very fascinating piece to read, so here it is: http://www.piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Paine1795.pdf

Just as an aside, Thomas Jefferson also felt the same about the landed class violating Natural Rights, and he proposed a progressive tax on the wealthy, with most Americans being exempt from taxation. (Editing note: I originally posted it was James Madison, but I got the recipient and the sender reversed. See letter in post 4 below. My apologies.)

Our Founders were proto-commies!


Kamala Harris proposed a universal basic income when she was a US Senator in 2018, which puts here squarely in the Liberal column.

More in my next post.

Currently the employee/employer total with social security and Medicaid is 15%. And the employer part is really the employee's money. That is a lot of moola. We have people finding it tougher to live than in the past and the millennial generation is on track to be the first one worth less than the preceding one in American history. This is all good if we were a self-sustaining nation. We would see any real problems from that. Will we have to live off of 3rd worlders in poverty nation who makes pennies on the dollar for our sustenance and survival? So, we can pat each other on the back for our self-congratulatory great society. There is a reason we purchase foreign vehicles today. And when the electrics are forced on us from the progs, we will purchase the Chinese made ones over American made ones.

 

[22lcidw]

Man has always been inventive and almost every new idea was to make a job or product easier. So we have had little men standing in the corner saying all the jobs will be taken away because of these new idea. Never happened, never will. For instance many new products would be in demand with more equatable distribution of wealth. Way way less money stuck in mattresses. Just think of the demand that would be created with let say 50% more income for every person in the middle class and/or the poor.

Something for nothing does not last long. We have to many people who play the system now. I believe Sweden a few decades ago was at the 70%taxrate in their socialist utopia and people collecting were living better than many people working as they played the system.

 

[22lcidw]

There are good regulations and bad regulations.

Not allowing a factory to bury toxic waste which leaks into the water table is good regulation.

The example I gave about cabbies and Uber is an example of bad regulations.

As for "the workers time", that is the whole reason Trump was able to rise to power. The middle class and the poor have been getting ripped off for a long time. But they don't know who or how.

This provides an opportunity for a demagogue to come along and point his fat little finger at a particular group and blame them for all our troubles.

Unfortunately, Trump works for the very elites who have been ripping us off.

How about Progs eliminate all taxes as all they have to do is print it up.

 

[Plagerist]

Another money grab couched in slick terms. Get a job.

 

[LordBrownTrout]

The ubi intertwines with the upcoming digital currency system and it will identify each person. Most people will accept.

 

[Mac-7]

the problem with UBI is it creates lazy second class citizens,,

there has to be skin in the game and working is the only way to do that,,

I can go for a tax credit for working people,,

its my understanding that the UBI in alaska is because of their fossil fuel resources and the huge lack of jobs,,

thats not a problem in the lower 49,,

its my understanding that the UBI in alaska is because of their fossil fuel resources

And since the same politicians who are keen on UBI usually hate fossil fuel something has to give