“If we give people a universal basic income, what will ever motivate them to work?”

Gee, I dunno. Desire instead of threat of starvation and homelessness, for one.

“But then people will just sit at home all day collecting UBI and doing nothing.”

K. And? So what? What’s it to you? Suggested UBI range is like $2000 a month. Really, how does it affect you if someone you don’t know stays alive to the tune of 24K/year?

Like do you run a business that has such a low profit margin that you need a bunch of people working for less than 24K/year and you absolutely can not afford to pay them more than that else your business will fail?

Why are you so bad at running a business?

Does working for you suck so much that absolutely no one would do it for fun or enjoyment or out of desire or inspiration? And you don’t pay well enough to make up for the complete drudgery that is working for you? Why are you such a bad boss?

Like really, what does it matter to you if someone gets enough money to rent a cheap apartment, eat regularly, have internet access and maybe get a haircut once in a while? On 24K/year, with a lot of frugality, they might even get to the dentist. Damn. The extravagance.

I don’t see anyone out here crying over the lost workforce caused by abusive relationships, almost all of which involve financial abuse. Gods forbid we allow victims some form of stability so they can get out and maybe, I dunno, live and work in peace some day.

No one’s building an investment portfolio on 24k/year. They’re not gonna buy your boat out from under you. They’re not gonna outbid you on that antique gold toilet. The change is you can’t exploit people through the most basic of survival needs anymore. What a loss for you, huh?

I guess it makes 24,000 of your annual dollars feel less special, maybe? Like they’re just not quite as dollarific as before. Not as hard, not as real. Because you worked hard for that money damnit! Okay, I can see that, sort of. In a fucked up need to feel superior kind of way.

What do you want? A sticker? A trophy? Membership to some sort of exclusive country club? Something you can pay 24K/year on just to prove that you’re better than everyone? Will that work? We don’t mind. Whatever you need to help you feel special while we help people stay alive.

I got one response that said that UBI would be “pure socialism” - it would mean that the state controls you.

To which I say: 1st, please look up words you don’t understand. 2nd, in the current universe, corporations exert control through lobbying politicians. This is freedom?

If you’re somewhere where distancing or quarantine is in place you probably noticed that you’re not terribly content to just sit at home and do nothing, even when you are financially stable.

People wanna do stuff. I’ve met exactly one person in my life who wanted to do nothing.

“But how could we pay for it?!”

Read. Read literally anything that’s ever been written about UBI that isn’t someone whining about “how could we pay for it” and is actually someone showing all the ways we could pay for it. This question has been answered a dozen ways.

Bunch of wanna be economists whipping out calculator apps to show me that 24,000*population=a big number.

No shit, Sherlock.

Do some reading. Make it scholarly for kicks.

Here, I’ll help you get started: http://scholar.google.com