MangoMan wrote:jafs wrote:
And, heck, never mind Gates, et. al. My wife and I are in the lower range of middle class - why should the government give us $30K/yr? We don't need it, and haven't earned it in any way that I can tell.
That's the whole point, you get it without 'earning' it. How do the people on welfare now 'earn' it, as you imply?
That's old school voodoo economics thinking akin to that we're still on a fixed exchange rate system ("gold standard"). Under the "gold standard", giving unearned money to people would have caused inflation because the money supply was constrained by the amount of gold reserves. There was no slack. Unless you personally dug for the gold to add to the reserves to expand the money supply, you didn't personally "earn" shit either.
What detractors don't understand is that -- and I learned this from reading about the ABLE Act -- is that communal working is a HUGE part of the social fabric and life experience. People rather work and belong than not work and not belong. There is strong peer pressure for this, especially in the USA. So under the CD, the disabled would have the ability to work and participate that they're currently now denied* (well, ABLE Act is an amazing baby step in the right direction). Same for those that are currently on welfare which is soul crushing -- that is how they "earn" it. The current system is just fucking perverse in that it completely disincentivizes anyone to actually go out and work or they will completely lose their safety net. It would like be trying to apply for a executive level job without even having a high school diploma!
Also, we really, really don't want people to be forced to work at jobs they're not well-suited for, hate or are not a best match just to be able to survive by affording the banal, basic necessities of life. No one likes surly, bored or unresponsible cashiers/servers. I think about 50% or something of current workers actually hate or are unhappy with their jobs.
* I'm ignoring institutional discrimination here for sake of the argument, but I don't see how the issue can possibly get any better until they come out of the shadows.