Pay/receive Universal Basic Income without middlemen | Hacker News Reader

Pay/receive Universal Basic Income without middlemen

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1 pointeliomattia4 comments

These kind of voluntary schemes completely miss the point of government and UBI.

There are certain systems that work well only if they are universal. There is a reason why we don't have car insurance where you only pay voluntarily. Government and taxation is similar system. It's not charity or free money. It's more like insurance scheme.

Interesting! Government(-backed) UBI is the ultimate goal. But how to make it happen?

First, why has it not happened already? All the data indicate that it's good. A no-brainer, then? Well, - It's expensive - Governments vest financial power in businesses, not in themselves.

End results? 1) A very oiled mechanism for income concentration, no questions asked 2) No mechanism for income distribution (!) 3) Blaming the government for not providing UBI already 4) No UBI, be it voluntary or government 5) Many people, who in fact want to contribute towards it, cannot.

Why not start by creating that mechanism for income distribution, then?

A quote about Sam Altman[1]:

«Altman suggests researching Universal Basic Income. (Y Combinator has already begun work on a UBI project in Oakland.) “We should set a goal of eliminating poverty in the country,” Altman writes on his website. “I’m not yet sure what a reasonable timeframe for this goal is, but I do feel a moral obligation to figure out how to do it.” Unions aren’t working, Altman says, and wages are stagnant, so we need something better, even though he isn’t sure what that is yet.»

Some examples of people who would like to contribute, yet cannot: - Nick Hanauer[2,3] - Letter for a wealth tax[4], not exactly on income but on wealth, yet indicative of the supply - The Giving Pledge[5] - Yusaku Maezawa[6] - Andrew Yang[7,8] has just brought together donors who are pledging millions for UBI - Patriotic Millionaires[9] - The World Economic Forum @ Davos is also "on the topic"[10] - Resource Generation[11] - Wealth for Common Good[12] – the project seems inactive, yet meaningful

References: [1] https://theoutline.com/post/2063/sam-altman-united-slate?zd=... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2gO4DKVpa8 [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBx2Y5HhplI [4] https://medium.com/@letterforawealthtax/an-open-letter-to-th... [5] https://givingpledge.org/ [6] https://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-billionaire-maezawa... [7] https://twitter.com/thrubi_org/status/1235700880940429314 [8] https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1235625855570804736 [9] https://patrioticmillionaires.org/ [10] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/davos-leaders-agree-w... [11] https://resourcegeneration.org/what-we-do/#our-methods [12] https://wealthforcommongood.org/

> Why not start by creating that mechanism for income distribution, then?

There already is. People get payments from the government every day.

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/7/21125303/alaska-...

True, though just for a bunch of small groups of people, out of the 7.7+ billion on this planet. We are restricted to "pilots", if you look at the world at large. What can catalyze basic income for all? I bet creating a channel for it to flow where governments aren't that advanced, yet. Only then will people start feeling what it means to be recipients. How many inhabitants does Alaska have compared to the world population? (less than 0.01%) How many recipients will Andrew Yang have on his donation-based plan before he can convince the government in 2024 or 2028? (not sure) How many people in the US compared to the world? (4.25%) I'm talking of this happening on a worldwide scale in 3 years rather than 3 decades. And the limiting factor right now isn't the availability of money, but the lack of a channel. Sure, governments need to be involved for it to be stable, but right now it's simply too high stakes and they simply won't do it.

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