Universal Basic Income

[Wilhemena]

If any of the recipients are among the elderly then I could see the monies being used for prescriptions because many of us are on daily pills and they aren't cheap. Who will benefit from this program in that case (hint the pharmaceutical companies who see easy targets when raising cost of medicines).

 

[tango]

If any of the recipients are among the elderly then I could see the monies being used for prescriptions because many of us are on daily pills and they aren't cheap. Who will benefit from this program in that case (hint the pharmaceutical companies who see easy targets when raising cost of medicines).

... which sums up the problem with this kind of thing very nicely.

Throw money around and people who sell stuff will soon realise they can increase the price because people have more to spend. When something does little more than devalue the currency it generally doesn't work out well, especially for the people at the bottom of the economic spectrum.

 

[psalms 91]

Personally I would like to see drug companies reigned in, they need to be, if the mob did stuff like they do they would be called racketeers and charged for it.

 

[MennoSota]

I see great effects in the area of issuing micro loans as starter capital for entrepreneurs. A colleague of mine runs a program in the Woodlawn neighborhood of South side Chicago and it is changing lives.
The practice of micro loans teaches people to fish. Give people money and it just teaches them to spend.

 

[tango]

Personally I would like to see drug companies reigned in, they need to be, if the mob did stuff like they do they would be called racketeers and charged for it.

I think part of the problem is regulation that keeps other players out. I remember a while back there was a big stink about a company selling epi-pens that massively hiked the price, and people complained because they cost $50 to make and were being sold for $600 or something. If they really were that cheap to make what stops a new market entrant from making them for $50 and selling them for $300, and taking market share? What there seems to be is a bunch of regulations that keeps new players out, more regulations that require products to be stocked whatever the price, then complains that the price rises. Barriers to entry and forced stocking of products is a good way to cause prices to spiral. Why compete on price if there is no competition, and why lower the price to attract customers when customers are legally required to buy your product whatever it costs?

 

[Lamb]

I see great effects in the area of issuing micro loans as starter capital for entrepreneurs. A colleague of mine runs a program in the Woodlawn neighborhood of South side Chicago and it is changing lives.
The practice of micro loans teaches people to fish. Give people money and it just teaches them to spend.

Your friend is a loan shark? LOL I know the Woodlawn area a bit.

 

[Josiah]

California will be the first to try out the concept of paying 100 residents $500 a month with no strings attached. It's called Universal Basic Income.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...esidents-in-experimental-welfare-program.html

This is STOCKTON, not California.....

I was not able to determine if this "experiment" of that city (limited to just 100 people) is "universal" or not. Clearly, not all 300,000 residents will get the money so it's not universal in that sense. Will the 100 people be chosen randomly (regardless of income)? Or only among those already receiving some kind of welfare assistance? Or perhaps only the City Council members and staff?


I think this idea (actually proposed by Richard Nixon when he ran for president in 1968 but QUICKLY abandon) is among the silliest economic ideas ever proposed. Nixon's was to be a "negative income tax" in that some would be so low in income as to actually RECEIVE money from the IRS - so it wasn't universal at all but limited to the poor - but it was still blasted (and dropped).


What does the Bible say? "He who will not work cannot eat?" Something like that..... IMO, we must help those who NEED it. But the idea of helping EVERYONE equally - Bill Gates among them - while not entirely unknown now, seems fundamentally stupid.

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[Lamb]

This is STOCKTON, not California.....

I was not able to determine if this "experiment" of that city (limited to just 100 people) is "universal" or not. Clearly, not all 300,000 residents will get the money so it's not universal in that sense. Will the 100 people be chosen randomly (regardless of income)? Or only among those already receiving some kind of welfare assistance? Or perhaps only the City Council members and staff?


I think this idea (actually proposed by Richard Nixon when he ran for president in 1968 but QUICKLY abandon) is among the silliest economic ideas ever proposed. Nixon's was to be a "negative income tax" in that some would be so low in income as to actually RECEIVE money from the IRS - so it wasn't universal at all but limited to the poor - but it was still blasted (and dropped).


What does the Bible say? "He who will not work cannot eat?" Something like that..... IMO, we must help those who NEED it. But the idea of helping EVERYONE equally - Bill Gates among them - while not entirely unknown now, seems fundamentally stupid.

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It's Stockton, California. I don't know where the money is coming from really.

Chicago is going to try it too now. You're right that although it's labeled Universal that it in no way is indicative of that term. Chicago is seriously in debt and has very high tax rates. People are leaving Illinois in droves already because the taxes are too high. What will this do for the remaining residents?

 

[Josiah]

LIBERALISM:

CREED: If you throw a bit a money at a problem, it goes away.

REALITY: It either grows the debt or drains the economic contributors in taxes - either way, hurts the economy which ultimately makes the problem worse. It makes the receivers DEPENDENT on the hand out, empowers them to be satisfied with their situation and not seek to improve it. It makes the receivers grateful to those handing it out - which creates a perpetual base of people that will vote to keep the liberals in office.



Liberal: "Hand a man a fish - and he'll need to keep coming back for more, giving us enormous political power."
Conservative: "Teach a man to fish - and he won't be dependent on government and others."



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[tango]

Liberal: "Hand a man a fish - and he'll need to keep coming back for more, giving us enormous political power."
Conservative: "Teach a man to fish - and he won't be dependent on government and others."

It has been said that a liberal measures the success of a government program by how many people use it, while a conservative measures the success of a program by how many people no longer need to use it.

 

[Josiah]

It has been said that a liberal measures the success of a government program by how many people use it, while a conservative measures the success of a program by how many people no longer need to use it.

Amen.




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