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this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2024
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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Which is one of the reasons I actually oppose UBI. Also, in practice, it will be used to replace SSI, not enhance it. At least in the USA, a better answer is fixing and expanding the SSI and Social Security system. People making 6 figures don’t need an extra $1k a month or whatever figure people want to suggest. But giving very poor people an extra $2k, moderately poor people $1k, etc. would be a bigger help. And the idea would be if you make $2 or $3 more dollars, you lose $1 in support
Edit: it would have to taper more slowly, maybe $10 you lose $1. It’s funny to see the downvotes, I don’t often see Lemmy folks defending ideas from conservative economists like Friedman.
That's just pointless extra bureaucracy.
Ok, the alternative is removing SSI, which is always how it’s been presented in the USA. People always get excited and never read the full language in proposals.
Here’s a great article on why it won’t work: https://www.rebelnews.ie/2021/07/05/universal-basic-income-socialist-case-against/
What is the cutoff point, where someone making more than that amount can use an extra $1k, but not someone making that amount?
It decreases with income, as I said. If we give $2,000 to everyone making under $60k, for example, then decrease it for every few bucks you make. You’d probably have to do something like a 10:1 ratio where is you make $60,010, you’d get $1999 and so on. That would mean people making $80k or more don’t get anything. And they don’t really need it anyway.
But regardless, UBI, even under Yang, is always an attempt to destroy and replace our current welfare system. Poor people would barely get any more than they currently do under SSI
Your assumption that SSI would be somehow removed or replaced is shit. Universal basic income should never be based on income, it goes against the entire point. Universal basic income would be on top of any existing benefits and wouldn't impact any other benefits.
Except that was Yang’s plan. That’s how it works when it’s been attempted at a federal level. Not to mention that’s the only way it would pass. It’s not BS when that’s literally how it’s been proposed in US law. Some proposals even remove SNAP along with SSI.
There is no assumption being made here.
Edit: here’s an excellent explanation of why it won’t work: https://www.rebelnews.ie/2021/07/05/universal-basic-income-socialist-case-against/