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Comment by jacalata | Hacker News Reader

This doesn't assume they'll take a 5 year vacation at all. It's the difference between deciding to become an artist because you know you'll never worry about money, and deciding to study accounting so you can eventually have an accounting job you don't care about that will support your evening art practice.

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Most will take a 5 year vacation.

They said without any research backing their statement whatsoever...

It's common sense if you have any interaction with US society. Not every common sense thing needs to be verified by a costly scientific study. Though some researchers try.

Plenty of things that people think are "common sense" are far from it. If you want to make a assertion such that you have, you'll have to have evidence.

It's commonly said to be common sense to justify cutting and severely restricting social programs, but rarely with supporting evidence of widespread abuse. Usually just small amounts.

In my experience it is hard to take a 3 week vacation without coming across an idea which "I would do if I had more time". I bet some interesting results will come out of this research even if every single person starts their 5 years with a vacation.

Maybe you would, and you know what? Good for you if you do.

Just about everyone I know would start a business, volunteer, do creative things, contribute to making the world a better place.

But, at the end of the day, I don't care how people spend their time or their money. If some fraction of the population wanted to bum around on their minimal UBI for the rest of their lives, fine by me. It's never going to lead to a life of luxury, and I quite honestly don't care if that's how they want to waste their lives.

If you don't care at all, then why are you okay financing that situation with your taxes?

This argument has no foundation in logic. There is a subset of people who are fine with paying those taxes and do not care how the intermediary recipients of those funds spend them.

Shit, man. If "financing things I don't like with my taxes" is the hill I'm going to die on, I'm going to set my sights on the insane military budget we use to turn far-away countries into toilets and parking lots.

Funding my fellow countrymen who want to squander their lives, so long as they're doing so peacefully and in the privacy of their own homes? Sign. me. up.

Because all they care about is that people are given the opportunity? Your question is a complete non sequiter.

because of the multitude of positive effects it has on society that i live in. less depression, less poverty, less risky or criminal behavior, more economic activity, better educators, better medical care workers. this list can go on forever.

Even if you personally don't need or use the system today maybe it can be useful for you in the future.

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