• A Seattle basic income pilot gave low-income residents $500 a month, nearly doubling employment rates.
  • Some participants reported getting new housing, while others saw their employment incomes rise.
  • Basic income pilots nationwide have seen noteworthy success, despite conservative opposition.
  • Ultragigagigantic@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    UBI saves capitalism from itself. Do we really want to save this shit system that empowers the worst of us?

    Do you honestly believe capitalists will allow a liveable UBI to remain untouched? Look at the minimum wage if you’d like to see the future of UBI. $7.25 an hour fucking shameful.

    • Kedly@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Bud, extreme change causes extreme strife. Having a system that allows us to transition from an old system that worked, to a new system that works better is the preffered method if you dont want to cause massive amounts of damage to peoples lives. The fact that UBI allows us to change towards a better way of functioning WITHOUT completely breaking the old system is a SELLING point. First we get people away from having to work merely to live, and THEN we can take further steps towards whichever utopic ideal we believe in

      • daltotron@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        First we get people away from having to work merely to live, and THEN we can take further steps towards whichever utopic ideal we believe in

        I mean it’s not even really a first, if, then, kind of deal, because they’re both mutually inclusive goals to be working towards, rather than being mutually exclusive.

        • Kedly@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          If thats your utopic ideal, than our current system with a UBI baseline will reach it. This feels like a technicality you are arguing with me on

          • daltotron@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            I mean no not really, I was just kinda advocating for dual power because people always like to make a big fuss about how it’s their way ideologically or the highway, without stopping for five seconds about how a lot of people’s ideal goals are actually mutually inclusive or mutually beneficial.

            • Kedly@lemm.ee
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              7 months ago

              Thats exactly why I phrased my statement the way I did though, just focussing on how UBI is a good transitioning block away from our current capitalist society, without specifically getting into whatever flavour of utopic society each user might have. I guess if your ideal society has shitloads of unhoused people being crushed by late stage capitalism, UBI would work against that outcome

    • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      This program isn’t UBI, and should not be compared to it, or used to argue for/against UBI. Universal Basic Income goes to everyone, not just certain people. That’s what makes it UBI, and not a welfare program, which is what this is.

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        To reinforce your point:

        A Seattle-area guaranteed basic income pilot gave low-income residents $500 a month

        102 participants

        Employment in the group nearly doubled

        Note that per a quick search Seattle has about 750k people, 102 specifically low income persons given money for some finite trial period is very very far from a test of universal basic income.

        • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          This is like saying “a triangle will never have 3 sides”.

          UBI, UNIVERSAL Basic Income, goes to everyone by definition. If it doesn’t go to everyone, it’s not UBI, and shouldn’t be called such.

          • masquenox@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Then we’ll never be given UBI. You know… in the same way that we will never be given democracy despite everybody calling it “democracy.”

    • theparadox@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      While I agree with your sentiment, I do feel like it is a step in the right direction and will help a great many people in poverty.

      Going straight from one economic system to another is likely to be an extremely violent process. I’m hoping that this would act as a stepping stone towards socialism rather than a life preserver for capitalism.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Do we really want to save this shit system that empowers the worst of us?

      Do you want the masses to have the material means to do anything other than bow to systemic pressure?

    • masquenox@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Do we really want to save this shit system that empowers the worst of us?

      How many times have you been forced to sleep out in the street?