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The concept of a guaranteed income is gaining traction as a solution to the impact of AI and way to encourage more rewarding and socially valuable work.

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I used to endorse UBI until I understood the fundamentals of a monetary system, then I endorsed Bitcoin. Any UBI scheme is utter BS, it's simply not how economy works, in any circumstance. The concept of UBI is a natural involution of money from following the fiat line of thought. A deflationary economy, on the other hand, encompasses in a natural way the event of a dramatic rise in productivity, for it leads to the prices of the goods to decrease. In a fiat system that rise implies emission, which will go only to bonds investors if not redistributed by the government, leading to an inflationary death spiral even in a context of abundance.

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Welfare but direct cash assistance

I think the negative income tax is the least bad handout or assistance program

You want to provide assistance but maintain incentive to earn a higher income

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Is there any evidence that the government provides more and better assistance than private charities, though?

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Private charities or organizations are better for providing assistance

By private charities I am excluding NGO which are de facto government entities

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The thing is that, under a deflationary economy, no welfare scheme is needed. Welfare is a consequence of fiat due to being the state the one that mints the new coins (best case scenario, on pair with economic growth). In a deflationary economy, economic growth naturally leads to a re-appreciation of the money you already have, equivalent in it's effect to the interests rates in the fiat system, but non-dependent on a central authority.

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The cost to buy votes and keep people from flipping over the table rises with time, this is just the next step in welfare and I used to be butt hurt about it, but now I'm like good, cook your currency, send all these poor signals into the market I have all the protection I need

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So many logic flaws it is hard to believe it has been written by a grown-up (or has it?):

  • “It wouldn’t necessarily lead to people doing less work – it would enable them to do better work or to invest their time in more socially useful activities.”: what a breakthrough, how come nobody has ever thought of it before?
  • if people are given money for nothing, what are all the charity work for?
  • with UBI, who in their right mind would to the dirty work that right now "are not compensated fairly"
  • "AI companies, meanwhile, will have no salaries to pay. “Because there are no human beings in the loop, the profits and dividends of this company could be given to the needy. This could be a way of generating support income in a way that doesn’t need the state welfare. It’s fully compatible with capitalism. It’s just that the AI is doing it.” is it just magic or a cartoonish vision disconnected from reality?

UBI is slavery, you take it once and you'll have to kiss the ring for the rest of your life

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Maybe there is a case to be made for UBI if we dismantle the current welfare apparatus

Or UBI for the disabled or elderly and if we dismantle the current social security system and payroll tax

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Free money is free money. Unless we change our money habits, nothing will change.

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The problem here is that the Guardian is a propaganda arm of the elite. In my opinion the way that a UBI would be used would be to further restrictions and controls on people’s lives through biometric scans, digital ids etc. “You can have your paltry UBI but you need to jump through all these hoops first.” It’s another road to serfdom.

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Their editorial staff is awful. Their opinion editorials are poorly researched and lack logical reasoning and rigor

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We never learn. And by "we" I mean "they".

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