Income Inequality

[DBTrek]

Somebody wake me when The Internet makes me rich... Jesus Christ, half a dozen venture capitalists hit long balls & that's supposed to translate to solving the job shortage problem? Red herring.

The internet made you rich, didn't it?


Regardless, we're not talking exclusively about "rich", we're talking about living better than government assistance/minimum wage.
Easy-peasy.
Go drive for Uber - live better than minimum wage.
Deliver for Amazon - live better than minimum wage
Live a nomadic RV lifestyle by taking short term, interstate, delivery gigs - live better than minimum wage.
Flip Dollar Store products, garage sale items, and goodwill finds on ebay - live better than minimum wage.
. . . AND do all of these on your own schedule, at your own pace, making whatever money you determine to be worth your time investment.

Or . . . you know . . . fret about some miracle AI that will displace all workers in all fields and demand the government cut you a monthly check. Though who's paying taxes to generate those checks in a world where no one is working is something I've yet to hear addressed by the doom prophets.

[Martin Hash]

Hey, we're on the same side on UBI, but as Hanny keeps saying, whatcha gonna do with 150 million losers?

[DBTrek]

Teach their children to be winners.

[Martin Hash]

Teach their children to be winners.

You must have a higher opinion of humanity than I do.

[jbird4049]

I didn't know you were so religious.

Unless you mean that one such response would be to kill off billions of people, because that is one possible response.

It sounds a lot like the idea that science and innovation will arrive to fix any problem facing humanity. The whole idea that, when we get there, we will innovate to find a solution, because magic.

There is no guarantee that we will automatically fix any problem simply because we must.

It didn't happen for the Anasazi or any other civilization that faced problems that were ultimate. Sometimes you face problems that you fail to solve. Has happened many times. Look at any group that ever lost a conflict. Probably best not to look at a problem with the assumption that the necessity of solving the problem will result in the problem being solved.

The Anasazi finished themselves off because of war followed by the survivors fleeing, but the humongous drought was the true cause. God given you might say. Considering this civilization problems are self inflicted, our collapse would be a kind of suicide.

Given that you admitted that the drought was the true cause, unless you are arguing that a stone age society caused climate change, their demise was not their own doing.

My argument should be palatable to leftists. Certain people argue that any future we face will be handled by human ingenuity simply because we must. When I hear that and think back on what I know of history, there is a long line of human failures to make that argument true. If that were true, then no society would have ever lost a war. If the mere presence of an existential crisis meant that those who faced it would inevitably rise above that challenge, then there would have never have been a single loser of any war ever, which we all know is not the case.

Walking into the future with the naive idea that we will meet any challenges the future brings simply because we must is folly. History is a graveyard of examples of this.

Umm,,,to restate what I said, the Anasazi's demise was caused by something beyond their control, whereas our collapse will probably be self inflicted. Almost a self fulfilling prophecy.

[Ex-California]

Hey, we're on the same side on UBI, but as Hanny keeps saying, whatcha gonna do with 150 million losers?

Don't we have 200 million losers now?

[Hastur]

I think it's a bad idea to pay people for just existing. What's to keep them from selling future earnings for a clump sum? Bankers will line up to buy parts of people's future earnings. They will bundle them and slice it and sell it to risk advers investors as some obligation.

I can come up with some pretty dystopian scenarios where people will be better paid for their future earnings if they agree to follow rules and checkups, take regular drug tests avoid risk behavior.
Terminally ill patients will be kept on life support with the medical costs being exactly the same as the UBI like some variation on the people batteries from Matrix.

Bad idea in the current state of things.

[Okeefenokee]

This time is different db - we are the horse......

You want to be the horse.
"Please, just give us a free stable, and free hay, and brush our coats for us, and shovel our shit, and pay our vet bills, all while demanding nothing in return from us!"

You guys are pining for that equine lifestyle. Begging for it. Maybe the karmic wheel will grant your wish, and in the next life you can be dumb, useless, animals that exist solely by the care and economic philanthropy of other's hard work.

But as a human being, you should probably aim a little higher than wasting your one life by wishing you were born lower on the food chain.

By 'care and economic philanthropy of other's hard work' I assume you mean being kept by whatever trust fund kid is maintaining a stable for their own edification?

Versus punching in for some unedifying task day in and day out for the pride of having earned my poverty? Hell yeah I take being a horse... running around, getting fed, maybe being put to stud... shit... never ceasing wheel of the world, bring me back as some one else's luxury by all means.

You're gonna have a bad time.

[Okeefenokee]

I'm going to have to go back to just reading your stuff occasionally. Someone nudge me when StA says something rational.

I think I said it before, I work with a guy who loves to call any and everything he likes or wants a right.

Lots of people do that, especially people who think Rights come from someplace mystical (rather than the barrel of a gun). But YOU know the difference between Rights and wants, so fuck that guy.

[Okeefenokee]

There is a fair amount of income inequality in Welfare, here are the best and worst states to NOT work in.

Lol, wtf are you doing Wyoming?