UBI is the perfect capitalist solution to the majority of problems. It should allow for less market distortion and could have some really interesting outcomes.
I’m very excited to see a first world country use UBI.
That an externalities can go a long, long way in this world.
Capitalism depends on the threat of homelessness to function. UBI can definitely ameliorate the problems of capitalism, but capitalists will constantly fight it. UBI is also a great idea within socialist economies, where there would be no force against it. We should be doing both - eliminate capitalism and provide UBI.
Capitalism depends on the threat of homelessness to function.
No it doesn’t
UBI is also a great idea within socialist economies, where there would be no force against it.
Maybe. But socialism is a stupid inefficient system, so it’s a non starter.
UBI works very well with the market based capitalist system. That’s where I think it will shine.
No it doesn’t
It kinda does. Do you think people enjoy working for near poverty wages? They don’t. But they can’t afford to say no to poor pay because it’s still better than no pay. If people weren’t worried about becoming homeless they’d demand for higher pays. In that sense capitalism does depend on the threat of homelessness to drive down the wage to make more profits.
But socialism is a stupid inefficient system, so it’s a non starter.
How to say you don’t know anything about socialism without saying you don’t know anything about socialism. I’m going to give you an example of it working on a smaller scale because US kept sabotaging most national attempts to have socialism. Worker cooperatives are socialist and I recommend looking up the history of Mondragon, a successfully ran cooperative for over half a century now.
Did you know that the US does not have a capitalist system? In fact, it’s silly to think of “capitalism” and “socialism” as systems at all. They aren’t. They are broad systemic feature sets. You’ve probably heard the phrase “mixed economy”. That’s actually what nearly every nation has, a mixed economy, meaning that we have socialist, as well as capitalist, elements. In fact, without socialist elements, the capitalist elements of our economy would have self-destructed a long time ago. You clearly have no idea what capitalism or socialism even are. That’s fine, most people don’t, it’s pretty much the norm, but now that it’s been pointed out to you, you have a choice: learn, and grow, or be a stubborn fool. Hopefully you choose well.
socialism is a stupid inefficient system, so it’s a non starter.
Socialism is a very broad political movement that works extremely well in some nations.
Sure, there are also nations where it’s a total disaster… but the same is true for capitalism. Socialism should be judged by the best implementations, not the shitty ones.
Capitalism depends on the threat of homelessness to function.
No it doesn’t
Market economies don’t. Capitalism OTOH by definition has an exploitative class and that class needs a whip to enforce their status. The two have been equivocated a lot by capitalist propaganda, same as they’re equivocating free and unregulated markets (which couldn’t be further apart in reality).
And it doesn’t need to be homelessness as such, it can be many things. The actual question is one of power, whether workers have a realistic option to say “nope, not that shitty a job for that shitty a wage” and tell the bosses to shove it. Can’t exploit someone who can say “fine by me, I’ll get a table saw and start to do some carpentry”.
