A Universal Basic Income Is Being Considered by Canada's Government
A Universal Basic Income Is Being Considered by Canada's Government
The Senate is studying a bill that would introduce a framework for a policy that would guarantee access to a livable income to everyone over 17.
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How do they plan to finance this?
Taxes.
Much like with stimulus checks, the basic idea is that if people aren't living paycheck to paycheck (if they are lucky), they are more likely to spend money on goods and services. Which leads to improved profits for said businesses, more employment, etc.
UBI theoretically puts a price ceiling on a lot of goods and services but... that is actually a good thing and helps to constrain inflation which increases the value of money for everyone.
And, as more and more jobs are automated with no alternatives in sight: Taxes are also a lot cheaper than all of the homelessness issues, collapsing housing market, increase in crime, etc.
The only way I can see this working is maybe with some sort of robo-tax (The more robots/AI a company uses, the higher their taxes). But right now it feels like chasing cars.
Why?
UBI is not "nobody ever works again". It is a safety net. Get injured and unable to work? You can still eat. In school? You don't need to work two full time jobs in between classes.
But also? If you want to get a bigger place or go on holiday or buy the latest video games or whatever? You still need a job. And that means you are paying taxes on that income.
And the other side involves actually taxing "the wealthy". Rather than just giving them a pass because Reaganomics.
But also, much like with healthcare: Costs go down significantly when everyone has it. Because all those restaurants that don't pay a living wage because they "can't afford it"? They don't need to. And so forth.
It is going to take work to dial things in. And we should have been doing that work for decades now because LLMs are going to really fuck up all the people who have been pish poshing the factory workers and taxi drivers and so forth.
Well if UBI is indeed a safety net, than it's really just extended wellfare at that point. Seeing how wellfare is already a quite controversial topic. I do not see this going through political-wise. Unless there is an absolute massive wave of unemployment by the effects of automisation. Which could unify both ends of the political spectrum on this topic.
I am on your side. But I just don't see this realistically happening (right now).
People already arguing for UBI specifically mention how taxes are already paying for them, through welfare systems.
Their argument is that it's actually cheaper to pay people a lump sum than to go through traditional welfare services.
True, which is why this framework is doomed for failure:
"...participation in education, training or the labour market” is not required to receive UBI, and that funding for other social services are not cut."
Other services must be cut to finance this. Pretending otherwise provides ammo to the nay-sayers.
You're right. And that is why we are in for a REALLY rough decade or so in the near future.
But once even "intelligent" tech workers, celebrity artists, etc are suffering? It won't just be the cab drivers who "should have seen the way the wind was blowing and learned a new skill". It is going to be widespread unemployment and suffering.
And that is when even just "We are going to investigate this" goes a long way.
Also: Bad actors will still fuck it up. But most models of UBI I have seen is that you get a baseline from the government and then are encouraged to work on top of that. Which still lends itself well to the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" fallacy and makes it a lot easier to stomach.
We are currently spending the same amount of money (possibly more due to fraudulent claims) on things like AISH, EI, special credits, etc. THAT money will turn into a UBI and streamline everything through less hoops and agencies, saving taxpayers even more money.
It’s cheaper to do it this way but people slap a “welfare” tag on it and hand wave it away because I’d that stigma, much like you just did.
There have been a handful of studies done around the world already if you’re actually interested in it. Almost all of them are positive outcomes.
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That's my point though. Justly or unjustly so, it is a controversial topic. So you need to convince conservatives otherwise. And boy oh boy, I think that task is even above UBI's paygrade 🙃.
I’m just expanding the conversation a little bit, I’m not necessarily trying to contradict or disapprove anything you said.
And I appreciate you for that ^^
Plenty of younger conservatives already accept the benefits of UBI on the rationale that they're already paying for welfare.
It works by redistributing wealth from those who have more to those who have less.
Taxing robots is dumb because it creates artificial incentive for companies to avoid anything labeled as a "robot". Tax people on the ridiculous amount of money they get from belonging to the ownership class, not the specific mechanisms they use to harvest their income.
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How do we pay for anything?
ooooh, debt
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