California city to experiment with 'universal basic income'

Are you that uncoordinated that you would bring the assembly line to a standstill?

If so there are still floors to be swept

 

Spoken like a true marxist.

 

A city would be difficult to tell. Maybe a state.

 

Of course not. Venezuela is just another example of failed Socialism that is too small to be bothered with. Ignore the man behind the curtain.

 

Exactly correct. Governments do not produce wealth, they tax and spend. If the politicians are not doing their job correctly, taxes keep going up. Taxation has a critical effect on an economy. Too much shuts it down. Just enough to meet government requirements promotes the economy and increases the monetary input to the government without jacking up the rates and crimping the economy. Reagan proved that. Here in Illinois, our politicians never quite seem to have understood that 10% of 10 dollars is more than 50% of 1 dollar and chased businesses out with heavy taxation.

 

The inability to comprehend what you just wrote is not limited to Illinois politicians, unfortunately.

 

right out in the open, too...unabashed and unafraid. I hope to see that change in my lifetime.

 

I wish more dems would come out of the closet.

Even top dems can't explain the difference.

 

Indeed. I would like to see this, also. I'm basically okay with communism, since I accept that there are no free rides for anyone in such a system - despite the infantile delusions of cafe communists. Having said that, I suspect the model most likely to work would be Nearing's 'Small Holder', barter based economy. It allows the freedoms a commune doesn't, but still demands solid work from everyone who is physically able.

 

The idea of letting a foreign group comes into your country to drill for oil is created by the fact that you do not have the skills to do it yourself. So, you make a deal that should include hiring many locals and giving the government of your country a huge amount of money for a valuable resource. So, what did the Venezuelan government do with all of that income? Did they spend it on infrastructure, schools, hospitals? Nationalizing the foreign investment probably means that almost no one is going to do business with you again, so kiss off foreign investment. On the upside, you now have all of the income from your oil. Where did that income go? Did it go for infrastructure, schools, or hospitals? Or did it go to the President For Life and his cronies? Ever notice how Socialist countries are never run by Socialists?

 

Hmm, universal income eh?

Will this finally shut people up?

Can we get rid of every other Human Resources and Entitlement program and just give a flat out "Universal Basic Income"?

If so, I could get behind this, it would simplify the literally thousands of different entitlements we have, would just flat out give everybody cash to do what they want with and stop the corruption that ALWAYS comes with the government "alphabet soup" agencies that take care of the entitlements.

Get rid of ALL THE ENTITLEMENTS.

Give everyone a "Universal basic income" then make it THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO LIVE OFF OF.

If they spend the money they are given unwisely and die from it? Do we then also have to feel bad that they are stupid and now dying in the streets?

At what point do we put the responsiblity on the people we are helping?

If we do it this way, but tell the people, "We are doing this so you now actually have money to spend like everyone else, but this is all you get. You cannot call in and say X, Y, Z I now don't have anymore of my free money, if you spend it on dumb stuff and you get sick and die? Sucks to be you.

We need to find the right spot between helping and making people take responsibility.

 

Even as a raving far lefty socialist and slight commie, I cannot disagree with this. This is the point missed by so many allegedly socialist/communist poseurs. They haven't seen how a commune really works .. and that's just it .. they really work (as in, hard work, for everyone, all day every day. no one gets a free ride).

Productivity is 'brutally' enforced, and conformity ditto. And I'm not just talking about cartoonish Mao suits and rice farms, I'm talking 'hippie' or religious communes in the west - or at least those that actually survive beyond a few years. Their conformity is in their aversion to any expression of non-approved politics, ideas, behaviours, appearance, music, lifestyle, etc etc. And the need for all to contribute to the productivity of the collective is exactly the same as for the Mao suited drudges of 20thC China. Survival of the collective depends upon everyone working. That doesn't change just because you have dreadlocks. You still have to eat, and build houses, and teach children, etc etc etc. These idiot cafe communists think that somehow it won't be like that, for them. They think it'll be all art, hugs and free money.

 

Exactly. Everyone else needs to work to provide for themselves, and for the elderly and disabled.

 

Definitely not grandma's Democrat Party.

"Ask not what your country can do for you" is long dead and gone.

they don't even want a country...having a country...with borders, and stuff... makes you a "nationalist", a "nativist", a "racist, bigoted xenophobe"

 

We have a moral duty to provide for children, the elderly, and the disabled. That's it. It's actually immoral to use our resources for those who do not fall into those categories, at the cost of those in such categories.

 

No, it's the problem of those genuinely in need, whose resources you've wasted on people that spend on worthless crap.

And YOU are not 'letting them starve', they have decided they like worthless crap more than food. They made a conscious choice. It's none of your business.

 

Nor mine.

 

Why are they renting? Why haven't family members housed them for free? These are basic and obvious questions. In third world communities, the family would take care of them via housing etc. Are third worlders doing a better job of this stuff?

 

Start by taking care of your (GY) family members. That's the responsibility we have to society. It starts and ends at home. Families are society.

The flaw in the system is the failure of families to live responsibly and to take care of each other.

 

BOOM!

 

exactly

 

Again, what does their choice to buy useless crap (instead of food) have to do with anyone else? It's clearly THEY who would prefer to starve to death. Why don't you lay that blame where it belongs? You are literally blaming random citizens for the self-inflicted wounds of other random citizens.

 

Pride is one of the seven deadly sins. If pride prevents you eating, you can't blame others for that. No one is 'advocating' for such people to 'have a harder life' but themselves. It has nothing to do with anyone else!

 

This idea could best be tested in a homeless camp. Go into a tent city and give everybody $500 and tell them they will get that every month. Then observe how many go find a place to live and a job.

 

no, it doesn't work like that. Upon seeing the legions of starving GBI recipients, the virtue signalling GBI advocates will immediately pander to the need for a supplemental food allowance to go along with GBI....and if you so much as lift an eyebrow at the suggestion you'll be labeled a heartless greedy regressive bigot (who hates jesus)