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Guaranteed basic income to every citizen, whether or not they are employed to ensure their survival and that they live in a dignified, humane way, preventing poverty, illness, homelessness, reducing crime, encouraging higher education and learning vocations as well as helping society become more prosperous as a whole.
Wow. Forget raising the minimum wage. This is much much better idea.
The minimum wage could actually drop if we had basic income.
But Americans would never go for it. Miserably slogging through 12 hour days and having businesses open 24/7 is too engrained in our culture.
“BUT WHERE WILL THE GOVERNMENT GET THE MONEY?” screamed Joe Schmoe, slamming a meaty fist onto the table and getting mouth-froth all over the front of his greying tank top. “You libt*rds all think money grows on TREES!! HAHA!”
“But where will people get the incentive to work?!” Mindy Bindy cried, flapping her hands in front of her face. She’d had a fear of the unemployed lollygagging about ever since she was a child and her mother told her to be afraid of the unemployed lollygagging about. “You think people should get paid for nothing? I work hard for my money!”"But who will serve me?” grumbled Marty McMoneybags. “Who will make me feel important? Who will do my laundry and cook my food and stand in front of me wearing a plastic smile while I take out all my stress—because I do have a lot of stress, you know, being this rich is stressful—on them?” He paused and straightened out the piles of hundred dollar bills on the desk in front of him, then raised his two watery, outraged eyes up to the Heavens. “Lord, if there are no poor people, how will I know that I’m rich??”
I laughed. This is perfect! Well said!
The thing is, while I’m sure you could scrape up a few people who’d be willing to just float by on a guaranteed minimum income? For most people the choice to work would be a no-brainer. “Hmmm. I can get by on 33k a year, or I can take that part time job and make 48k… enough to move to a better apartment, maybe take the family on vacation. Sold.” Hell, most people would want to work simply because it gives one a sense of dignity and something to do with one’s time. (Speaking as someone who’s been unemployed, on extended sick leave, etc. in her time, the boredom and sense of isolation that comes with not having a job is almost as bad as the humiliation of having to depend on other people for one’s survival.)
And with this system, part-time jobs and “non-skilled” jobs would be much more readily available because nobody would need to work two or three jobs just to stay afloat!
Which would ALSO mean that employers and customers couldn’t shamelessly exploit employees the way they can today, because if losing a job weren’t necessarily a financial disaster, more people would be willing to walk out on jobs where they weren’t being treated with dignity.
And if this also applies to students (and it should) then student loans would become much less of a problem, and fewer people would flunk out of school because of having to juggle studies and work.
Far fewer people would be forced to stay with abusive partners, parents or roommates because they couldn’t afford to move out.
And the thing is, all those people who suddenly had money? They’d be spending it. They’d be getting all the stuff they can’t afford now - new clothes, books, toys, locally-produced food, car repairs - and with each purchase money would flow BACK to the government, because VAT, also income tax.
The unemployed and/or disabled wouldn’t need special support any more - which would also mean the government could fire however many admins who are currently engaged in humiliating - *cough* making sure those people aren’t getting money they don’t deserve. Same for medical benefits and pensions. And I’m no legal scholar, but I somehow imagine less financial desperation would lead to less petty crime, and hence less need for police and security everywhere?
TL;DR Doomie thinks this is a good idea, laughs at those who protest.
reblogging for more top commentary
They tried something like this out in Canada as a sort of social experiment, called Mincome. What they found was that, on the whole, people continued to work about as much as they did before. Only new mothers and teenagers worked substantially less hours.
But wait, there’s more. Because parents were spending just a little more time at home and involved with their families, test scores increased. Because teens didn’t have to work to support their families, drop-out rates decreased. Crime rates, hospital visits, psychiatric hospitalizations and domestic abuse rates all dropped, as well. More adults pursued higher education. Those who continued to work reported more job flexibility and more opportunity to choose employment they preferred.
Basically, now you can go prove to your asshole family members that society won’t collapse without poor people for you to feel better than.
The picture is awesome, but read the commentary, that’s what I’m reblogging for.
Rich people have no fucking clue.
A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to a friend/co-worker of mine named Jim about how my classes were going and then we were interrupter by some strange woman that I later found out was the boss’s wife!
She butted in and said “Excuse me, young man! You should write a letter to Dan Soucek because he will do more to save the New River than Virginia Foxx will!”
I was a little taken aback by her rude interruption and the irrelevance of her statement but replied calmly and politely, “That’s because she’s and evil, rich capitalist and that how our society works… maybe.”
Even though she was basically ordering me to support a Democratic party candidate, she then busted into some Ayn Rand-loving bullshit speech about how important capitalists and without them civilization as we know it would come to and screeching, exploding halt. First she tried to tell me the difference between “good capitalists” and “bad capitalists”, which I easily shot down by reminding her of the fact that its all about making money, no matter who gets exploited in the process.
She then tried to bring up examples like Steve Jobs. I said that she is confusing smart people with rich people. Because Capitalists are just money men that unfortunately smart people have to go through. Jobs was a rare example of someone that didn’t have to.
She kept up though. “Well, think about you Ipad…” trying to get me to love rich people because of a gadget that I can’t afford. So, I interrupted her this time, “MY IPAD?! HA HA HA! Hey, Jim! Listen to this! ‘My Ipad!’ Look at me! I’m the millionaire who can afford an ipad and can afford to go see a doctor every time I get sick! HAHAHAHAHAH!”
In the end, I reminded her that she had no concept of what it was to be a member of the working class. Her husband makes $90,000 a year, plus full health benefits, PLUS a four figure bonus at the end of the year for keeping our operating costs low. He keeps operating costs low by keeping most of us at staring pay and denying us benefits like health insurance. So every year he and missus get to spend a week in Hawaii and my and the rest of blue collar scum get ramen for dinner.
I also told her that there is no such thing a “good capitalist”, just as the Republicans and the Democrats are two halves of the same party: The Elitist Wealth-Protection Rich Man’s Party. They may vary on things like abortion, gun control or the environment but at their core they only represent the interests or the wealthy elite.
She just tried to blow me off by telling me that I was not old enough to understand. I told her that it doesn’t matter what your age, you know what its like to be hungry and have some asshole with everything to tell you to eat cake. What its like to be so hungry you can’t go to sleep. To be a school and drink as much water at the fountain as you can to keep your stomach from hurting. To feel like a rich man when your lucky enough to have a jar of peanut butter and a sleeve of saltine crackers.
She would never understand because she was born into money and she will die with money.
And boss’s wife or no boss’s wife, I gave her my speech I give any time some rich fuck thinks that daddy’s money makes him better than everyone that has to work for their own money. “One of these days there is going to be a revolution in this country; and people like me are going to string people like you up, and all of daddy’s money won’t save you then.”
Surprisingly I did not called into the boss’s office or punished.
☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭
My thoughts exactly Officer Barbrady.
They forced us to read that in high school. That piece of shit made me with I was illiterate and dead.
I resolved to apply antiquity’s teachings to our world today, and so began my path to conquest. Conquest not of men, but of the evils that beset them. Fossil Fuels. Oil. Nuclear Power. Like a drug, and you, gentlemen, along with foreign interests, are the pushers
“
| — | Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, Watchmen |
Iceland sends bankers to jail!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5viOrnaLB8Y
Instead of protecting bankers, Iceland sends bankers to jail for wrecking the economy! Iceland once again proves it is more progressive than America!
