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Why is UBI not a good solution to poverty?
(hexbear.net)
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this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
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I bring this up often in conversations with people I know and sometimes online, and the responses I've gotten are some version of "who's gonna pay for it" or "people aren't gonna work for free." Often followed up by "people are going to abuse the shit out of that." Coming to the conclusion that providing these necessities for free is possible and a net good is such a massive paradigm shift for people used to the current paradigm of "earn lots of money or starve."
In fact that may be part of why UBI is so relatively popular among working people. Many understand and have maybe even experienced a tax refund or something similar, and can conceptualize how a UBI could work within the bounds of the status quo systems they know.
It's the system change/revolutionary suggestions for improvement that go over people's heads, and it's part of our job to help them learn that better things are possible.
Perhaps it's because they already have these basic necessities covered by their wage and don't see how such things being free would enrich their lives. Free money is more money and they perceive that as a universal improvement.
Talking to people who struggled to give their children an education during lock downs - who can't afford even twenty dollars a month for Internet, who struggle to afford bus fares and pens and paper for their children - making such things free is very popular down here.
Ubi is still subject to the same question of who will pay for it, interesting how workers in the core perceive their tax refund as some form of "free money" and not what it really is.