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RE: Is Universal Basic Income A Good Idea?
I think the BUI will remain an illusive socialist utopia because it will inherently devalue any money distributed by it. As soon as income is not conditional on effort and intrepid any more the majority is likely to lose any material appreciation.
This would -by design- just introduce a tremendous source of inflation, thereby necessitating even more state intervention to control the artificial system that is BUI
So I have to admit that I am not as optimistic about BUI as you guys
It sounds like inflation is your main concern about UBI. Please read this article in full to go into that concern in depth.
https://medium.com/basic-income/wouldnt-unconditional-basic-income-just-cause-massive-inflation-fe71d69f15e7
How would it cause inflation?
Isn't that caused by printing money?
This would just be redirecting money that already exists.
We government "gives" money to so many programs and corporations already without them having to do much "work" to receive it.
How would giving it directly to people be any different?
Well, I think a sense of general entitlement would incentivize a more "careless" spending behaviour and money management. This in turn creates inflation of consumer prices which would require the state to adapt basic income levels and so forth and lead to a vicious cycle of money devaluation.
I'm not understanding how increased spending behavior would create inflation of consumer prices.
It's essentially impossible to imagine that spending behaviour and money management could be any worse than it is now. Personal (and national) debt is at record highs. But the reality of capitalism is that you need that sort of carefree spending to prop the whole system up.
Absolutely right @luzcypher. And even then, printing money doesn't necessarily lead to inflation.