An Alternative to Welfare

[Music] so I think universal basic income is a better solution than the hodgepodge of different intrusive programs that we have now then let me explain briefly a lie so what we have is a system and I wrote a pretty incendiary paper about this the state is just is a bad polygamist so if you're a single mother and you have three children if you do one of two things you'll lose your support from the polygamist if you get a job or get married if you actually do something that achieves some independence for yourself your husband the state will start we're getting a divorce right I don't care I mean you can have more children you can have affairs but you have to be committed to me you can only get support from me which means that you can't do any of the things that normally we would expect and this is a conservative position I propose family and jobs are good things being married and having a job is a good thing we have what many people even on the Left have called the cliff effect of benefits if I'm in section 8 housing and I get subsidies for food I get subsidies for school the first 10,000 that I earned costs me $12,000 in benefits so the poor aren't lazy they're rational right so they're they're really it's just a realistic gank neck I don't want that on a game they're not playing a game but it's a they're making calculations and I've had technical sense yeah they have choices they have strategies those have payoffs yeah it's unsurprising they pick the ones that make them better off because they're desperate they can't afford to lose this money so for example if you're living in through subsidized housing in a decent area with a decent school and even if you don't want those handouts well then you realize wow I'm gonna have to work and then they're going to force me to move I do a much worse place to live I can't afford childcare so the state is a bad polygamous let's stop doing that so to me universal basic income that's given without strings we take the money that we're spending now which is enough to give at least $12,000 per poor people's you take the amount that we spend divide it by the number where we taken that from well all of these different subsidy puts all of the subsidy programs then go to so including Social Security mm-hmm so we eliminate all those yeah use that money to give everyone a universal basic income and if they get a job they don't lose it they get married they don't lose it they can use it for childcare one of the problems that people have now is it's very specifically tied to a location so I can't go somewhere where there's a job because I won't be able to establish myself universal basic income if it's federal means that if I'm living in Cleveland Ohio I can't find a job and our jobs in Texas or North Carolina when I get there I get universal basic income I can establish myself I can pay for childcare I can look for a job and actually our jobs in those place yeah do you find a conflict between your libertarian self and your kind of myself on this because it seems like the idea of a libertarian going the states you give people money probably seems like there's some fight there right or if you're a destination Asst if I'm a directionless I say dude we're giving them the money now right we're already doing it we're already doing it let's just give the money in a way that's cheaper and increases Liberty that's the basic directionless argument which is why milton friedman and charles murray are both in favor of universal basic income but it has to be a directionless re we're already doing that now you're saying we shouldn't do that great good for you we are and unless you have some plan to end that and improve things I'll listen to that right that's not what they say they just say well the government shouldn't be giving out any money it already is let's do it in a more efficient way and in a way that increases Liberty because I can then spend that money on what I actually want we give these vouchers for food which I don't really want to buy that I want to buy something else I sell my food stamps for 50 cents on the dollar mm-hmm if I get money I already have a hundred cents on the dollar now the one objection the people on the Left when people on the Left make is well those poor people you know how they are they'll spend it on the wrong stuff so what I want to do is vacuum it the people on the left make I think that isn't that usually from the right where they'll say hello they're going to spend it on more some people but a surprising number of people you know left believe that yeah so one of the things I like about this is it it sort of divides the usual political split by a paternalistic they are there's a whole bunch of people on the left that really think experts and honestly which white people should be saying here's how these poor people should be spending their time and money [Music]

Channel: Learn Liberty

Views: 88,503

Rating: 4.4587412 out of 5

Keywords: Universal Basic Income, Social Welfare, Welfare Reform, Basic Income, Universal Income, Welfare state, liberties, liberal, liberalism, classical liberal, classical liberalism, liberty, freedom, libertarian, Rubin Report, Dave Rubin, Michael Munger

Id: ADCOI2k0Eyc

Length: 5min 8sec (308 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 21 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Minarchist77]

I think NIT is better than UBI because it's less costly. Either one would be a great replacement for the welfare state.

[u/yuriydee]

Im slowly starting to like this idea of a UBI. Certainly we need to fix the current system and since the "handouts" are never going away, UBI seems like a better alternative.

[u/AnarAchronist]

Most tax is paid by middle income earners. If i receive 500 - 800 a month and my tax goes up by 8k - 10k whats the point?

If everyone gets paid a UBI how will we also avoid inflation that otherwise cancels out the cost benefit? We end up getting taxed more and pay more for goods and services.

Maybe when we have a nuclear fusion reactor in every home and energy is free and abundant then we can have nice things like UBI. Until then, invest in technology like that along with affordable water vaporators and replicators that can convert electricity in to food.

[u/[deleted]]

UBI is interesting and I need to learn more about it. But, with that said, wouldn't a UBI take away the motivation to work in some ways?

[u/Shiroiken]

UBI has a lot of problems, first of which is sustainably. If everyone is getting a certain amount of income, then you have to tax everyone above that minimum a ridiculous amount to cover everyone. As fewer people work, this tax has to rise proportionally, which will discourage work further, leading to a death spiral. Eventually you won't be able to collect enough, and so money will have to be devalued (either by credit or printing money), causing the minimum to be less than considered minimal.

Secondly, you have to have it work as a supplement to income (i.e. bringing your income up to the minimum), or as a bonus to your income (i.e. everyone gets the same amount), and both are problematic. If you supplement income, you discourage work, since you can get the most by doing nothing. Working only a little abovethe minimum means you've made pennies per hour, since the first part was really done for free. If you give everyone the same amount, then inflation will quickly bring the minimum below the amount needed to live.

This is all assuming you can get people to agree on how much "minimum" really is. I know several millennials who consider high speed wi-fi, iPhone, and cable to be "necessities." Too many mistake lifestyle choices for necessities.

This leads us to our next problem, which is acceptance of personal responsibility. If someone blows all their UBI on frivolity, too many will argue we can't let them starve. This will cause the welfare programs to come right back again, but now we have UBI too...

Finally, this is going in the wrong direction. You can't reduce government with an entitlement program!