On Universal Basic Income
Aug. 2nd, 2019 09:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brin_bellway[cw: poverty]
Posting this now because of this Slate Star Codex post, but it's been percolating for a while.
I know, I know, I'm super weird, the circumstances that shaped me are super weird and my responses to those formative experiences are apparently also kind of weird no matter how inevitable they seem to me, but it always boggles me the reactions that UBI discussions assume people will have to UBI.
True, if you gave me a USD$12k basic income (all else equal) there would be *short-term* changes in my lifestyle, as I bought the things I've been [procrastinating on buying because I can't afford them] but know will only get worse the longer I don't buy them (house repairs, car that doesn't actively suck). And there would be *long-term* changes in my lifestyle, as I could afford to retire sooner than I would have otherwise. But in the *medium* term nothing about my day-to-day life would change. I'd still be consuming about the same amount, working about the same amount, going through accountant training about the same amount: the only difference is I would now be saving ~100% of my labour income.
And a lot of that is purely my own weirdness, but here's an important factor that might very well be important more broadly: my government can't be trusted to keep its basic-income promises! Empirically! Of *course* I'm not going to make any plans that depend on a UBI program continuing to exist!
The only basic income I'll trust is a self-funded one: if other entities want to contribute to my fund I'll gladly take it, but every cheque that relies on somebody else deciding to give me money might be the last, and I will plan accordingly.
Posting this now because of this Slate Star Codex post, but it's been percolating for a while.
I know, I know, I'm super weird, the circumstances that shaped me are super weird and my responses to those formative experiences are apparently also kind of weird no matter how inevitable they seem to me, but it always boggles me the reactions that UBI discussions assume people will have to UBI.
True, if you gave me a USD$12k basic income (all else equal) there would be *short-term* changes in my lifestyle, as I bought the things I've been [procrastinating on buying because I can't afford them] but know will only get worse the longer I don't buy them (house repairs, car that doesn't actively suck). And there would be *long-term* changes in my lifestyle, as I could afford to retire sooner than I would have otherwise. But in the *medium* term nothing about my day-to-day life would change. I'd still be consuming about the same amount, working about the same amount, going through accountant training about the same amount: the only difference is I would now be saving ~100% of my labour income.
And a lot of that is purely my own weirdness, but here's an important factor that might very well be important more broadly: my government can't be trusted to keep its basic-income promises! Empirically! Of *course* I'm not going to make any plans that depend on a UBI program continuing to exist!
The only basic income I'll trust is a self-funded one: if other entities want to contribute to my fund I'll gladly take it, but every cheque that relies on somebody else deciding to give me money might be the last, and I will plan accordingly.
