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    Raging BulldogHamilton Nolan
    4/15/16 12:33pm

    So my question is, how much would such a program in the US realistically cost? And where would that funding come from?

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      Cam/ronRaging Bulldog
      4/15/16 12:38pm

      What are you, a bean counter? What matters are the IDEAS and the FEELINGS of it all.

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      Sentient Portrait of Leonid BrezhnevCam/ron
      4/15/16 12:42pm

      Does it make more sense than trading your time for pushing some excel files around a desktop, which no one really needs or will remember in a year? Maybe you’d be able to do something useful with your time instead.

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    PithyTheElderHamilton Nolan
    4/15/16 12:38pm

    “Ultimately, basic income has to be financed from taxes. Not everyone will have more money; the basic income of the poor would then be funded by raising taxes on, say, the top 1%.”

    It sure sounds like he put a lot of thought into the arithmetic of the entire underlying concept of this plan.

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      10BannersPithyTheElder
      4/15/16 1:00pm

      Indeed. The top 1% is not paying for this - gonna need a boatload more tax.

      I still say the best solution for reducing poverty is contraception. So simple.

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      Steve_Buscemi's_OrthodontistPithyTheElder
      4/15/16 1:04pm

      As 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there are 242,470,820 adults living in the United States. The total population was estimated at 316,128,839 people, with 76.7 percent of those people being over 18.

      Assuming that the Basic Income comes in at $1,000 per month for every person over the age of 18, it would cost ... fuck, a lot. Like, $242,470,820,000.00 per month. Or, just under $3 trillion per year.

      But let’s round it up to $3 Trillion for shits and giggles.

      2015 Social Security Payments: $870 billion
      2015 Welfare Payments (including Medicaid, etc): $701 billion

      Give or take a few billion here or there (jesus), and you’re looking at a difference of $1.49 trillion per year (the assumption is that a UBI would replace SS and Welfare).

      I’m not even going to try and figure out how to plug that hole, but there it is.

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    The Once and Future KingHamilton Nolan
    4/15/16 12:32pm

    Nothing in the entire history of humanity would lead me to believe that we could ever be so reasonable as to adopt something like this. We’ve basically spent ten thousand years failing the prisoner’s dilemma.

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      Lampost452The Once and Future King
      4/15/16 12:43pm

      I know too many people who, if shown a picture of a person reaching for a pencil to fill out an application for government assistance, instantly begin foaming at the mouth

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      BDCBThe Once and Future King
      4/15/16 12:49pm

      The biggest hurdle is convincing people that the pie wouldn't shrink and shrink and shrink as it becomes less and less rational to work, assuming the state would mitigate the effect of diminished production by increasingly raising taxes on the employed.

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    Subtitles999Hamilton Nolan
    4/15/16 1:13pm

    I'm not normally on board with you. But I dig this. One of the big question is how do you Handel immigration?

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      You might be wrong.Subtitles999
      4/15/16 1:15pm

      Why would it be any different?

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      Sentient Portrait of Leonid BrezhnevSubtitles999
      4/15/16 1:21pm

      You have to start with a Liszt.

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    stuckonrewindHamilton Nolan
    4/15/16 1:56pm

    (I didn’t have time to read the whole interview, pressing things at hand)

    But. Earlier this week, my 1st grade daughter and I were discussing her reader from school. It’s about the beginnings of NASA and the moon landing. So we talked about the famous phrase “one small step. . .” and I explained to her that it was one of the most famous utterances in the common era and she wanted to know what else was famous so I said “well, you know Martin Luther King, Jr, right? He talked about having a dream.” And I explained. She said “his dream didn’t come true because people aren’t treated the same.” “Why not?” “Because not everyone makes the same amount of money.” She is 7. She kept on. “And I think Daddy should pay you for taking care of me. I’m hard work.” Besides the logistics she cannot grasp, the basic tenants here are evident to a child. People deserve equal living wages. Raising a child is a job the same as any other.

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      h8h8h8stuckonrewind
      4/15/16 8:10pm

      how difficult, watching a kid while they’re at school for 8 hours a day!

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      Arjakstuckonrewind
      4/16/16 12:10am

      Right! Because socialism works! We should listen to 7 year olds for policy because they clearly know more than educated adults.

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    Executor ElassusHamilton Nolan
    4/15/16 12:42pm

    Sigh. It’s such a lovely fantasy, and would make my own life immeasurably better (my skillset has less than zero commercial value, and it took me 20 years [and counting] of advanced education to get it), but I sincerely doubt I’ll ever see a GBI implemented in my lifetime.

    Americans have it just too deeply ingrained into their character that your income is directly proportional to your virtue. I suspect, much more likely, the rest of the industrialized world will move on to a GBI economy, and the US, as it has with capital punishment, Imperial weights and measures, etc. etc., will just keep doing things its own (much more mean-spirited, much less effective) way.

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      Captain HindsightExecutor Elassus
      4/15/16 1:01pm

      my skillset has less than zero commercial value, and it took me 20 years [and counting] of advanced education to get it

      Yeah, that’s behavior I want to subsidize. Here’s an idea - spend your time on developing a skill set that is actually marketable.

      I’d love to get paid to smoke pot all day but it turns out there’s not much of a market for that - so I learned to write code instead.

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      the johnCaptain Hindsight
      4/15/16 1:09pm

      And when everyone learns to write code? Or better yet, when the code itself writes code? Jesus you tech libertarians are dense.

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    toothpetardHamilton Nolan
    4/15/16 12:30pm

    If it’s not in motion, it’s not money.

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      Was That Latintoothpetard
      4/15/16 12:33pm

      If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit.

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      toothpetardWas That Latin
      4/15/16 12:34pm

      this is a hot dog with spray cheese on it, inside a twinkie.

      the prosecution rests.

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    jimboskiHamilton Nolan
    4/15/16 12:51pm

    This guy sucks so bad.

    He really needs to lose the term “bullshit job” to gain some credibility and not rely on what I assume are anecdotes from like-minded people he’s met who led him to believe that they’d sit at work an play candy crush all day or peruse the gawker comment section.

    A 15 hour work week doesn’t even sound good. It sounds like more of a nuisance - “oh, I have to get up and go to work for 3 hours?! Nah.” “Oh, time for me to operate this subway for one round-trip then head back home”.

    Universal minimal income is an interesting idea but it need better representation than this guy.

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      Hawkeye-15jimboski
      4/15/16 1:01pm

      If you are only working 15 hours a week why would it be for 5 days instead of 2?

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      McRunwelljimboski
      4/15/16 1:04pm

      They are bullshit jobs tho... Most of them could be replaced with a robot.

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    DolemiteHamilton Nolan
    4/15/16 12:46pm

    Hold on, hold on. I don’t think we’ve given the “give trillions of tax dollars to the wealthy and ask them to make sure a little bit trickles down to their employees, and please don’t hide but so much in secret offshore tax shelters” plan a chance to work yet. It’s only been a few decades.

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      DisinterestedPasserbyDolemite
      4/15/16 1:22pm

      If we double down on it, it’s sure to work! Reagan said so!

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      Mistake Not...Dolemite
      4/15/16 1:35pm

      So....we flip it and give trillions to everyone else....to do what exactly? All I see from this is tremendous inflation. Give everyone that money, and aaaaaaaalllll the prices will skyrocket, b/c you’ve made the money much less valuable.

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    I am the LawHamilton Nolan
    4/15/16 12:32pm

    Get a job, you bum.

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      I am the LawI am the Law
      4/15/16 12:32pm

      Just kidding, you’re my favourite.

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      butcherbakertoiletrymakerI am the Law
      4/15/16 12:45pm

      Goddamned hippies!

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