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rubenflamshepyesterday at 10:39 PM3 repliesview on HN

Pretty good article until the bizarre post-script where they fall back on the tired "people derive meaning from their work" for why UBI is bad.


Replies

WalterBrightyesterday at 10:55 PM

Meaning or not, UBI doesn't work because the math doesn't work.

> bizarre

It isn't bizarre at all. Without work people devolve into playing video games and smoking pot in their mom's basement.

I remember summer vacations from school. It was great for a while, but soon I was looking forward to getting back to school.

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apitoday at 2:49 AM

UBI doesn’t mean people don’t work. It means work is partially decoupled from basic needs.

People would work for two reasons. One is to make extra money and afford a lifestyle beyond what UBI provides. The second is to… do things that are meaningful. If people derive meaning from work then that’s why they’ll work.

Some people will just sit around on UBI. Those are the same people who sit around today on welfare or dead end bullshit jobs that don’t really produce much value.

I’m not totally sold on UBI but there’s a lot of shallow bad arguments against it that are pretty easy to dismiss.

falloutxyesterday at 11:02 PM

governments will collapse before we are at a moment where UBI is needed. Billionaires and companies hardly pay any tax and if white collar jobs die down, there is no guarantee that government will even have money to wipe their butt.