On Basic Income
I got into a political discussion on Facebook once and…it didn’t devolve into a cesspool of vileness. Shocking, I know. I shared an article that talked about Liberals and Libertarians uniting together to oppose the current tide of authoritarianism and specifically targeted some friends who I know aren’t shitheads. I’ve been pretty negative toward Libertarians in the past but this article and subsequent discussion helped me understand that viewpoint better. We actually agree on a great many things.
During the discussion, the topic of Basic Income came up and was the first thing to almost derail everything. One friend of mine, who is a quite reasonable guy despite being very Libertarian, stated he thought anyone who gave UBI (Universal Basic Income) more than a passing thought was an idiot. This surprised me for several reasons. First, he’s normally pretty open minded and second, I’ve seen a few Libertarians actually open to this idea.
At the time I didn’t want to derail one discussion by taking it off on a completely different tangent. In fact, his reaction to UBI was so hostile, and for all of the reasons I’ve been so negative to Libertatrianism in the past, that it would have turned a nice conversation sour. But I did feel like I needed to assemble my thoughts on UBI at some point (this discussion was actually quite awhile ago, it’s taken me awhile).
Before we begin I want to state I am not completely sold on UBI. I am not completely convinced that it will work like rabid proponents claim; but then, whatever does? I am also pretty skeptical it could ever be implemented in the US in anything like the near term future. That all said, I do see a lot of merit to it and don’t agree with many of arguments against it. Even if it shouldn’t or couldn’t be implemented I feel it’s an idea worth exploring if for no other reason than to help move toward achieving some of the benefits of UBI through other means.
Freedom
Libertarians talk a lot about freedom. That’s kind of their shtick. That’s the part of their philosophy that appeals to me. A UBI would offer people a lot of freedom.
We’re all slaves to our basic needs. We need food, water, and shelter. We don’t survive without that. Under the current system, people need to work to achieve those things. On one hand that seems reasonable. Work to survive is kind of fundamental to nature.
The problem with this as it currently stands is the power disparity. The poor person doesn’t really have much freedom. They do whatever work they can get just to survive. They can’t learn more skills or look for better opportunities because all of their efforts are devoted to survival.
If everyone had their basic needs met, then the workers would be able to demand fair pay for their efforts.
As it stands right now, if you’re a minimum wage worker, you’re living paycheck to paycheck. You can barely afford your bills. But you’re working 50+ hours each week. It’s a drain on your body. Then something goes wrong. You get hurt or sick. You can’t afford to go to the doctor. You can’t afford to miss work. So you keep working, wrecking your body more. Soon, a problem that could have been fixed becomes a long-term problem.
With UBI and Universal Healthcare, you run into this problem, you go to the doctor and get treated. Your asshole boss fires you, it sucks, but you can still eat and have a place to live until you’re better.
Even more, your asshole boss probably doesn’t fire you. Because now, if he’s an asshole boss, people are just going to quit and do something else. The asshole doesn’t hold all the power anymore. It’s a fair exchange between worker and employer.
Power
Power disparity is one of the biggest flaws in Capitalism. Everything revolves around money, so those without any don’t have any power. Those with it get to be assholes without recourse.
I personally would prefer a system where corporations were owned by the workers, rather than stockholders, and the profits were shared by everyone involved in making the company run. You know, socialism. That’s a bit much for a lot of people and involves quite a major reworking of society. That’s pie in the sky thinking.
But UBI really isn’t much different than what we have now. It just corrects for some of the flaws in capitalism by readjusting the power levels. People can sell their labor for a fair share of the profits, rather than being exploited because they need to eat.
Markets don’t work for things you can’t live without out. That’s why free-market healthcare sucks so much. If you need X or you die, the person with X can charge whatever they want, rather than a fair price.
But people are lazy
Now, I know there are plenty of arguments against UBI. As I said, I have some hesitations myself. But one argument I hear the most is one I think has no legs. The idea that if everyone had a UBI, no one would work.
First, we’re talking about basic income. People aren’t buying luxuries and then sitting around playing video games all day. They have food and a place to live (which, I would add, has power, water, and internet access). People will still want cool things. People are willing to put in work for things they want. They have the power to decide how much they want.
Second, people get bored. Very, very few people are going to sit around doing nothing. At least not for very long. Most times if a person sits around doing nothing, its due to a feeling of hopelessness and being trapped. That, no matter what they do, their life will continue to suck.
Remove the trap of capitalism, give them a stable floor below which they can’t fall, and that feeling of hopelessness evaporates. No longer will they have to look forward to fifty years of working a dead end job just to get by. They can get by doing nothing. That’s all the incentive they need to be able to then do something. Something they actually want to do.
The New Renaissance
This might seem a bit pie in the sky, but I believe that if people have the freedom to live their lives without fear of their basic needs, they will do amazing things. Let’s go through two scenarios. First, we’ll look at the Joe Schmoe who doesn’t have a particular passion, he just wants to live.
Right now, Joe must go to work. He hates the work. He hates his boss. He hates the way it demeans him. He hates that he doesn’t have a choice. He’s got a terrible attitude. No one likes working with him.
Under UBI, Joe doesn’t work. He stays home, hangs out with friends. He wants things that he can’t afford. He decides to get a job. Not because he has to, but because he wants too. He’ll work only a few hours a week. He’s pleasant to be around and does a good job. He doesn’t feel miserable and people like working with him.
Next, we’ll look at Jane Creative. Jane has a vision for an awesome computer game. She devotes her time to making this a reality. She gets a job for a few hours a week, just enough to afford the things she’ll need to make her game a reality. She finishes her game and it’s amazing, because it was something she really wanted to do. She sells it, not for much, but enough to cover her business expenses. She continues making more games, getting better at it. Jane isn’t stuck in a dead end programming job working on some project she hates, getting turned off to the whole idea of making stuff.
Those are over-simplified examples but they get the heart of my point. How many amazing things haven’t been created because the person with the potential to make them is stuck in a cycle of poverty? How much better would work be if people actually wanted to be there? How much better would life be if people didn’t have the stress of just surviving?
So that’s my thoughts on basic income.
