• peto (he/him)@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    “Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?” -Andrew Ryan, a very smart man who went to live under the sea and I am sure nothing bad ever happened to.

  • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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    4 months ago

    Where the fuck do these people assholes think their “trillions of dollars” come from? People need to have money in order to spend it. If you put everyone out of work then theirs not going to be anything left for them to spend on your bullshit products and services.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The average middle-class capitalist moron view of economics is when you get rich the government fires up it’s money machine and delivers you sacks of cash. The only thing keeping us all from getting our own sacks is momentary inconveniences and they too will be rich one day just as soon as they [fill in a thousand blanks.]

      A billionaire has deprived vast numbers of people of something. You do not hold onto a billion dollars in your hand without the knowledge that some… or most of that would have paid for medical procedures, some of that would have been baby formula, medicine, overdue rent payments, gas to get to work for a struggling family, heat and water bills and so on. But you have found ways to skim that money from enough people that few notice. Because you don’t miss something that was intercepted before it made it to you.

      You simply cannot ethically hoard money.

  • Redderthanmisty@lemmygrad.ml
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    4 months ago

    The problem I have with UBI is say I get a hundred bucks a week from it, there’s not a single thing stopping my landlord, or my utility companies, or local supermarkets, or anyone in this godforsaken system from just raising their prices to siphon it all away.

    We don’t need universal income, we need universal services. Garaunteed housing, food, public transport, healthcare, everything needed to sustain atleast a basic standard of living so we’re not constantly in fear of whether the last month of 70 hour work weeks is going to be enough to keep of the streets and keep food on the table.

    • Wes4Humanity@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Tie it to inflation and end taxes on individuals… It makes no sense to distribute UBI and then tax it. Just tax the whole bill for society to the corporations. That incentivizes corporations to put pressure on each other to keep prices down and make products that last. There are definitely some industries that should be owned by the state though.

  • PopOfAfrica@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I actually think universal basic income is a very flawed idea from a leftist perspective.

    It is effectively a capitalist compromise that still puts all of the asset holders in immense positions of power. The only difference now is they effectively are governmentally enforced as those positions of power. It will make the wealth disparity exponentially worse.

    The answer to our wealth disparity is to put power in the hands of the average person.

    • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The answer to our wealth disparity is to put power in the hands of the average person.

      Average voter: “Ugh, all the power and responsibility is too much work. Can’t we just elect someone that takes care of all of this for us?” Congress/parliaments are born. “Ugh, keeping track of all these politicians and their policies and waiting for them to enact laws is too slow and tedious. Can’t we just elect some sort of super politician that promises to take care of all our problems quickly?”

    • running_ragged@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Having the mass majority of the population trapped in jobs that pay just enough that they put up with it, while giving away all their time and energy to a corporation is exactly why the average person has no power. They’ve had the will drive to force real change sucked out of them.

      UBI is a mechanism that can help them take back their time and energy to affect real change.

    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      If the labor force could opt out of the rat race because they didn’t have to work, then they gives them immense power especially considering what they have now. Of course the necessities would have to be controlled in a not-for-profit manner so that you can’t just have some land baron that adjusts the cost of rent and food upward to ensure it eats up all the UBI, same with utilities/internet/etc.

      But for consumerist goods that people want because they enhance life, if people could realistically withhold their labor unless the capitalist offered equity etc in industries that produced those things, you would quickly see the power of the leaders of those industries wane significantly.

      • barsquid@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Yes. All the free market economy guys are making assumptions about efficient markets and infinite choices, but none of that is true. But the reality is laborers don’t even have the ability to leave a shitty job even with alternatives available, like just interviewing would use up a precious sick day or cost them hours of wage.

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          For most jobs in the US you’d be burning a sick day and losing hours of wages. Most jobs in the US do not pay you for sick days, they just don’t use that as an excuse to fire you.