My step grandfather was a calvinist christian who believed the lie “pull yourself up by the bootstraps.” When Dad left us at 7, brother 6, a new infant, he did not pay one cent on the $30k the courts ordered him to pay over 18 years in 1965. Mom worked 3 part-time jobs so if she lost one we wouldn’t be completely homeless. Every safety net system had been so gutted she was never able to qualify. When we did become homeless my grandfather refused to help us other than a brief stay in a 3 bdr house (he made $30k) until Mom found 3 more jobs and got us all out. They were ruthlessly cruel “christians.” At 65 it has become obviously clear we are in even worse shape and all thanks to these decades old lies based on religious corrupt principles. Excellent points all.
Just one comment. Reagan had a well honed contempt for the poor, but his much exaggerated story was based on coverage of the story of Linda Taylor of Chicago. Josh Levin details the late Ms.
Taylor’s career of scams in his book “The Queen.” The lie Reagan wanted the public to believe is that all people on public assistance were fraudsters, which is false. His lies did immense harm to the people most in need of help, and still do so.
As has been pointed out by many analysts, if workers' salaries had kept pace with increases in productivity after 1975 instead of being suppressed by businesses, the average worker today would be making between $85-90,000 a year and the US would have the strongest and healthiest economy in the world..... Wonder of the oligarchs know how much they are costing themselves with their policies that suppress wages and keep people in debt, unable to participate fully in the economy (excessive student debt has the same negative effect on the consumer economy as well).
Agreed, I really think the right wing wackos have cost the American workers over a hundred trillion or more dollars the last 60 years. With all their incarcerating pot smokers and poverty generating drug abusers in other words takers and not givers, plus their trickle down theory and all that other stuff. I don't think the mainstream media that only claims 52 trillion is really taking all the problems caused by Reagan into consideration.
Blaming poverty on the poor is not only one of the most pernicious lies ever posed by the grifters of great wealth but (not surprisingly) one that is never addressed in the MSM, so thanks once again to Thom and his unique and spot-on take of things.
Growing poverty is another one of the horrible things that plague our democracy and, it should come as no surprise, it is either caused by, exploited by, or exacerbated by the powers of corporate personhood. Implementing UBI as a tactic to help properly promote our general welfare can be a great idea but it still doesn’t address the root of the problem.
We need to elect a supermajority of competent progressives who will satisfy their Constitutional purpose by first ending the powers of corporate personhood and then by collaborating with our citizens to make our democracy work the way it should.
And that includes building and maintaining a role model public education system available to all of us as well as a role model public healthcare system for all. Those two systems alone are the best investments our country can make in pursuit of becoming the kind of democracy that the citizens of other countries will choose to have if they have the choice. Moreover, that is how to slash the crimes of despair the cost us hundreds of billions every year.
There are no good reasons why our government’s decision-makers can’t satisfy their Constitutional purpose, but there a bunch of crappy ones like “It’s not how we do things” or “it would just be too hard.” And that ain’t right.
The woman that bought a car so that she could be employed at a position where she was required to use her own car to visits mental health clients should have been able to use the money for other necessities. Her employer should have provided a car that was necessary to do the work. The UBI should be unconditional so people can keep it while they earn additional money by being employed.
Many people are choosing not to have children because they can't afford children, so now the right wingers want to abolish contraceptives and abortions and treat the two as if they are one. The right winger is also opposed working towards a heaven on Earth well aggressively pushing a hell on Earth. They must have God and Satan confused?
Yes! God and Satan confused. I don't think it is out of conception to suggest Trump as the "Golden Calf," and to wonder if the Isrealites would have sacrificed Moses when he came down.....
This is so true. A great article, as always.My Dad and so many Soldiers from WWll
we’re able to ho to college and build careers. Sit certainly helped my Dad and helped him to send his children to college.
I worked in the Headstart program and saw it change family lives. Headstart paid for many to get their GEDs. Many mothers continued their education and became aides and then teachers. Dads benefitted, as well. It’s the old saying, You can’t pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you don’t have any boots!!!
It's physically IMPOSSIBLE to pull one's self up by the bootstraps. Bootstraps are on the back of boots for pulling the boots onto one's feet. Another myth!
My Mom romanticized the vets who benefitted from the "GI Bill" returning from WW2, yet viscerally fell hook, line, eternal authoritarian for the demonization of "welfare queens" and "lazy hippies" and all the rest. Very crazy-making for me. Never mind.
The reason that libertarians support this program is because it eliminates the need for most other social programs. I was around when SSI, Supplemental Security Income was "federalized" during the Nixon administration from state disability jurisdiction. IMHO this program is the main target. A secondary target was the Social Security Disability Trust Fund.
In 2015, it looked like the Social Security Disability Trust Fund would default. At the time, some Republicans encouraged default. I published a paper, Save the Social Security Disability Trust Fund! and Reduce SSI Exposure to the General Fund.
Mr. Hartman. This is one of the most important economic topics you have written on this year.
When money is given to ordinary citizens, they spend it here in the U.S. They do not squirrel it away in some offshore account or invest it in a foreign country. Injecting money into the economy is exactly the kind of thing John Maynard Keynes recommended for modern economies. When I was young and reading economics this was called "priming the pump." It was, of course, loudly denounced by the business community for exactly the reasons you state: encouraging the "undeserving poor" to be "lazy." However when billions of dollars are spent on military hardware which enriches large corporations while tying up funds in equipment that sits, floats, flies, or explodes, doing nothing to stimulate the U.S economy while it is sitting, floating, flying, or exploding; conventional, mainstream Economists (whose job is to serve the business community) see nothing bad about this waste.
As our population grows and as the productivity of our economy grows, it is absolutely necessary for more currency to be periodically injected into the national economy. There was a time in the not too distant past when this simple Keynesian truth was understood. A minimum basic income as well as single payer Government-financed health care are excellent ways to inject currency into a national economy. Many countries already do it.
As for welfare recipients--"Queens"... this was Reagan's anti-Black, racist dog whistle which unfortunately won him many White votes and gained the Presidency for him. Reagan's "Welfare Queen" was much like that evil, racist, misleading "Willy Horton" advertisement which Daddy Bush subsequently used in his Presidential campaign. When it came to taking advantage of White racism; Bush learned from the Master.
As an aside about Reagan. let me say this. I remember when he was elected the first time with 60% of the votes cast. the Press went on and on about how this was an "overwhelming mandate to rule." What the Press did not point out was that only 50% of those eligible to vote showed up at the polls and did so. 60% of 50% of the voting public is 30% of those eligible to vote who actually supported Reagan. This was his "overwhelming mandate to rule:" 30%! The previous year Daniel Ortega and his Sandinista party were elected with 95% of the vote in Nicaragua. The American Press called Ortega the "Dictator" of Nicaragua. And Reagan illegally financed the so called "Contras" who killed Nicaraguans and destroyed Nicaraguan communities for a decade leaving it the second poorest country in the Americas.
I was a welfare social-case-worker in my youth for the Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) program in Detroit. It broke my heart to listen to all the hatred and vitriol voiced in public about the real, deprived fellow citizens in our midst. This dehumanizing, vitriolic bile was vomited out publicly by middle class citizens who knew nothing about the poor in their communities. The only contact middle class people had with poor people in my parent's suburban neighborhood was the maid (always a Black woman) who cleaned their large houses once per week. Or the workmen ( usually Black or Hispanic) who mowed their lawns, tended their gardens, washed their cars, and vacuumed their pools.
Same as "they say" about welfare. Just sugar for zombies. Lady meant to make a point about, at least (hopefully) kids aren't being interrogated about religion, or get different "poison" according to apparent race. I humbly submit sometimes you need to lighten up, my friend.
Funny thing is, I've been treated like a freak because I am highly compatible with the Atkins diet, and have dared to say so! I do seem to be a rare case of no sweet tooth at all. I will go hungry, offered any pancakes or doughnuts or cookies if maybe I can get bacon, eggs, or a darn hamburger for breakfast. Oh, wait, I am a freak!
LOL. As you know, George Washington visited the Barbados with his brother Lawrence in 1751, and became addicted to sugar cane, no one knew anything about dental hygiene and he chewed on sugar can till he lost all of his teeth.
I grew up around the rednecks in southern Oregon, that's where I learned to say Democrat instead of Democratic party. I heard somewhere along the way that George lost his hair and teeth and was senile and died of syphilis. I actually believe you over them, considering the rednecks are a bunch of dictator loving Trump humpers now. They thought I was kind of strange, being a self-proclaimed truth seeking hippie. I think they thought I was gay? Everything they don't like is either a hippie or gay or communist. Since we're on the topic of food, there are probably a lot of them that are dead from eating too much grease, sugar and drinking too much alcohol and smoking tobacco and chewing tobacco. I actually started to chew tobacco and drink myself by the age of 12. With a little pot, but I've never been addicted to any drugs, I saw how it affected the drug abusers. I stayed away from religion also. Jesus and God is all right with me, but religion belongs in the septic tank IMHO!
The level of human potential in the US that is bound and gagged by GOP policy is not only extraordinarily inefficient, it is unforgivably detrimental to our human spirit and overall morale -as well as posing a damning national security threat.
When those of unconscionable wealth order their willing and eager hitmen within the GOP to raze any semblance of a social safety net, they have told us what they think of America and of America's future. That telling is, very clearly, that they do not believe in America, and as such, bare no responsibility to the overall health and continuity of our nation - the same nation that made them kings.
We humans have so much to offer - given fair circumstances. When those circumstances are designed and controlled by the rich, for the rich - it's no surprise to find a society in despair. Most people I have ever worked with (across a very broad range of occupations and geography) wanted more than a paycheck from their employment. They wanted to feel needed. They wanted purpose. They wanted opportunity. Yet none of these intangibles can be realized if all of a person's energy is used to simply keep from drowning.
Someday, somewhere, a billionaire is going to pull himself up out of his loot scraps, dust himself off, and show the rest of us how to "earn" all that money the Right way - shear luck and brutal selfishness.
My activist friends and I discussed this often. We thought about how it would enable people to volunteer and do their pay-it-forward work knowing they could pay their bills
Single-payer health care should come first, then secondary schooling or training.
None of us asked to be born, and despite our freedoms in this country, it is not a blessing to be an American for everyone. It's within our power to make it so. We deserve it. I wish these Republican religio-fascists understood that. They need to treat everyone like they treat the rich and corporations!
Expecting a program like UBI to accomplish only good results is erroneous; it assumes that all human beings have the same interest to prosper. Every person is unique, and has different desires, and we're all at different phases in our lives. By phases, I mean if you give a UBI to a teen who's at that phase in life where they just want to party, it could be just enough to push them over the edge into addiction; yet, give the same individual that UBI when they're in the phase of life when they, like the woman buying the car for work, just need that bit of a boost to do some good with their life and in the lives of others. The same UBI given to people with different desires, at differing stages of life, could have either helpful or destructive results.
You are being generous, aren't you? If people took care of themselves, we wouldn't have an epidemic of obesity.
We are indeed what we eat. I am insulin resistant, noticed it in 2006, the doctor diagnosed it by one look at me. I am skinny, have been all of my life, but bicycling one day I looked down and noticed my swollen stomach, though I had something seriously wrong, as the fat was carried high, not low like a pot belly, but the rest of me was skinny as always, still is.
A dietician prescribed staying away from simple carbs, and sweets, but my favorite meals are simple carbs..
Finally in February I got concerned and started on a Wheatabix for brunch, no breakfast, and a salad for dinner. I've lost almost 40 lbs, and another 20 to go, and my blood glucose and A1C readings hover between 95 and 108 (mm/dl) (5.3 and 6 mmol/dl)/ PCP says I am still diabetic but managed.
Truthful the diet sucks, monotonous as hell, but I am protecting my health and extending my life, so worth the monotony. About once a week a treat myself to a tiny homemade pizza, I avoid all processed foods best as I can, and even the pizza sauce has to have nomore than5 ingredients, no sugars, all veggies.
Gluttony and satisfying cravings vs living healthier and longer, not a choice. My wife and cats need me.
Doing something consistently for thirty days, without a let up or fall back, is how you reprogram yourself. That is how I quit drinking and smoking. Never did drugs,nor smoked pot.
What I mean is can't perform activities of daily living, can't be punctual, can't read beyond a third grade level, etc. After I got back from Vietnam, they didn't know what to do with me. I gave medical discharges. In order to pass the AFQT requires about an 85 military IQ. We needed canon fodder so much we had Project 100,000, where we took people with a lower IQ. . Couldn't pass basic. Couldn't get an MOS other than "duty soldier," e.g. permanent KP.
I couldn’t agree w you more. The highest tax bracket was taxed at 91% during the time when “America was great” and the safety nets keep getting smaller, and we are no where near a universal health care system as most industrialized and democratic countries have no problem funding. Inability to at catastrophic medical bills is a leading cause of bankruptcy leading to homelessness leading the expense of managing the crime and discarded citizens along the homeless villages. Don’t touch the wealthy’s irrevocable trusts and their guns.
I humbly submit a revisit of Charles Dickens. I try to read "A Christmas Carol" anew not long after now, most years. Maybe "Oliver Twist" is why I am what I am now. Never quite put that into perspective, before,but it is one of the few books I read all, more than once, when I was young......
My step grandfather was a calvinist christian who believed the lie “pull yourself up by the bootstraps.” When Dad left us at 7, brother 6, a new infant, he did not pay one cent on the $30k the courts ordered him to pay over 18 years in 1965. Mom worked 3 part-time jobs so if she lost one we wouldn’t be completely homeless. Every safety net system had been so gutted she was never able to qualify. When we did become homeless my grandfather refused to help us other than a brief stay in a 3 bdr house (he made $30k) until Mom found 3 more jobs and got us all out. They were ruthlessly cruel “christians.” At 65 it has become obviously clear we are in even worse shape and all thanks to these decades old lies based on religious corrupt principles. Excellent points all.
I can't quite sort out "step-grandfather," but boy do I get the stigma of the dogmatically labeled unworthy. Dearly hope you are OK now.
Just one comment. Reagan had a well honed contempt for the poor, but his much exaggerated story was based on coverage of the story of Linda Taylor of Chicago. Josh Levin details the late Ms.
Taylor’s career of scams in his book “The Queen.” The lie Reagan wanted the public to believe is that all people on public assistance were fraudsters, which is false. His lies did immense harm to the people most in need of help, and still do so.
As has been pointed out by many analysts, if workers' salaries had kept pace with increases in productivity after 1975 instead of being suppressed by businesses, the average worker today would be making between $85-90,000 a year and the US would have the strongest and healthiest economy in the world..... Wonder of the oligarchs know how much they are costing themselves with their policies that suppress wages and keep people in debt, unable to participate fully in the economy (excessive student debt has the same negative effect on the consumer economy as well).
Agreed, I really think the right wing wackos have cost the American workers over a hundred trillion or more dollars the last 60 years. With all their incarcerating pot smokers and poverty generating drug abusers in other words takers and not givers, plus their trickle down theory and all that other stuff. I don't think the mainstream media that only claims 52 trillion is really taking all the problems caused by Reagan into consideration.
Blaming poverty on the poor is not only one of the most pernicious lies ever posed by the grifters of great wealth but (not surprisingly) one that is never addressed in the MSM, so thanks once again to Thom and his unique and spot-on take of things.
Growing poverty is another one of the horrible things that plague our democracy and, it should come as no surprise, it is either caused by, exploited by, or exacerbated by the powers of corporate personhood. Implementing UBI as a tactic to help properly promote our general welfare can be a great idea but it still doesn’t address the root of the problem.
We need to elect a supermajority of competent progressives who will satisfy their Constitutional purpose by first ending the powers of corporate personhood and then by collaborating with our citizens to make our democracy work the way it should.
And that includes building and maintaining a role model public education system available to all of us as well as a role model public healthcare system for all. Those two systems alone are the best investments our country can make in pursuit of becoming the kind of democracy that the citizens of other countries will choose to have if they have the choice. Moreover, that is how to slash the crimes of despair the cost us hundreds of billions every year.
There are no good reasons why our government’s decision-makers can’t satisfy their Constitutional purpose, but there a bunch of crappy ones like “It’s not how we do things” or “it would just be too hard.” And that ain’t right.
The woman that bought a car so that she could be employed at a position where she was required to use her own car to visits mental health clients should have been able to use the money for other necessities. Her employer should have provided a car that was necessary to do the work. The UBI should be unconditional so people can keep it while they earn additional money by being employed.
Many people are choosing not to have children because they can't afford children, so now the right wingers want to abolish contraceptives and abortions and treat the two as if they are one. The right winger is also opposed working towards a heaven on Earth well aggressively pushing a hell on Earth. They must have God and Satan confused?
The best part of Mike Johnson ran down his fathers leg.
Yes! God and Satan confused. I don't think it is out of conception to suggest Trump as the "Golden Calf," and to wonder if the Isrealites would have sacrificed Moses when he came down.....
This is so true. A great article, as always.My Dad and so many Soldiers from WWll
we’re able to ho to college and build careers. Sit certainly helped my Dad and helped him to send his children to college.
I worked in the Headstart program and saw it change family lives. Headstart paid for many to get their GEDs. Many mothers continued their education and became aides and then teachers. Dads benefitted, as well. It’s the old saying, You can’t pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you don’t have any boots!!!
It's physically IMPOSSIBLE to pull one's self up by the bootstraps. Bootstraps are on the back of boots for pulling the boots onto one's feet. Another myth!
My Mom romanticized the vets who benefitted from the "GI Bill" returning from WW2, yet viscerally fell hook, line, eternal authoritarian for the demonization of "welfare queens" and "lazy hippies" and all the rest. Very crazy-making for me. Never mind.
America still caught up in the "Puritan" myth.
SO happy we left 23yrs ago.
The reason that libertarians support this program is because it eliminates the need for most other social programs. I was around when SSI, Supplemental Security Income was "federalized" during the Nixon administration from state disability jurisdiction. IMHO this program is the main target. A secondary target was the Social Security Disability Trust Fund.
Attached find the Milton Freedman rationale. https://medium.com/basic-income/why-milton-friedman-supported-a-guaranteed-income-5-reasons-da6e628f6070
In 2015, it looked like the Social Security Disability Trust Fund would default. At the time, some Republicans encouraged default. I published a paper, Save the Social Security Disability Trust Fund! and Reduce SSI Exposure to the General Fund.
https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1601&context=naalj
Mr. Hartman. This is one of the most important economic topics you have written on this year.
When money is given to ordinary citizens, they spend it here in the U.S. They do not squirrel it away in some offshore account or invest it in a foreign country. Injecting money into the economy is exactly the kind of thing John Maynard Keynes recommended for modern economies. When I was young and reading economics this was called "priming the pump." It was, of course, loudly denounced by the business community for exactly the reasons you state: encouraging the "undeserving poor" to be "lazy." However when billions of dollars are spent on military hardware which enriches large corporations while tying up funds in equipment that sits, floats, flies, or explodes, doing nothing to stimulate the U.S economy while it is sitting, floating, flying, or exploding; conventional, mainstream Economists (whose job is to serve the business community) see nothing bad about this waste.
As our population grows and as the productivity of our economy grows, it is absolutely necessary for more currency to be periodically injected into the national economy. There was a time in the not too distant past when this simple Keynesian truth was understood. A minimum basic income as well as single payer Government-financed health care are excellent ways to inject currency into a national economy. Many countries already do it.
As for welfare recipients--"Queens"... this was Reagan's anti-Black, racist dog whistle which unfortunately won him many White votes and gained the Presidency for him. Reagan's "Welfare Queen" was much like that evil, racist, misleading "Willy Horton" advertisement which Daddy Bush subsequently used in his Presidential campaign. When it came to taking advantage of White racism; Bush learned from the Master.
As an aside about Reagan. let me say this. I remember when he was elected the first time with 60% of the votes cast. the Press went on and on about how this was an "overwhelming mandate to rule." What the Press did not point out was that only 50% of those eligible to vote showed up at the polls and did so. 60% of 50% of the voting public is 30% of those eligible to vote who actually supported Reagan. This was his "overwhelming mandate to rule:" 30%! The previous year Daniel Ortega and his Sandinista party were elected with 95% of the vote in Nicaragua. The American Press called Ortega the "Dictator" of Nicaragua. And Reagan illegally financed the so called "Contras" who killed Nicaraguans and destroyed Nicaraguan communities for a decade leaving it the second poorest country in the Americas.
I was a welfare social-case-worker in my youth for the Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) program in Detroit. It broke my heart to listen to all the hatred and vitriol voiced in public about the real, deprived fellow citizens in our midst. This dehumanizing, vitriolic bile was vomited out publicly by middle class citizens who knew nothing about the poor in their communities. The only contact middle class people had with poor people in my parent's suburban neighborhood was the maid (always a Black woman) who cleaned their large houses once per week. Or the workmen ( usually Black or Hispanic) who mowed their lawns, tended their gardens, washed their cars, and vacuumed their pools.
Interesting that this is sent on Halloween. We give food to kids at the door regardless of need.
Candy is poison, not food.
Same as "they say" about welfare. Just sugar for zombies. Lady meant to make a point about, at least (hopefully) kids aren't being interrogated about religion, or get different "poison" according to apparent race. I humbly submit sometimes you need to lighten up, my friend.
Funny thing is, I've been treated like a freak because I am highly compatible with the Atkins diet, and have dared to say so! I do seem to be a rare case of no sweet tooth at all. I will go hungry, offered any pancakes or doughnuts or cookies if maybe I can get bacon, eggs, or a darn hamburger for breakfast. Oh, wait, I am a freak!
LOL. As you know, George Washington visited the Barbados with his brother Lawrence in 1751, and became addicted to sugar cane, no one knew anything about dental hygiene and he chewed on sugar can till he lost all of his teeth.
My dad had to quit sweet port wine the hard way, and took up the habit of chocolate chips. Died with bad teeth, for sure.
I already had syphilis?
What was with the question mark? Bob. I'm stunned, what has GW chewing cane and losing his teeth, have to do with syphilis. I'm at a loss here, friend
I grew up around the rednecks in southern Oregon, that's where I learned to say Democrat instead of Democratic party. I heard somewhere along the way that George lost his hair and teeth and was senile and died of syphilis. I actually believe you over them, considering the rednecks are a bunch of dictator loving Trump humpers now. They thought I was kind of strange, being a self-proclaimed truth seeking hippie. I think they thought I was gay? Everything they don't like is either a hippie or gay or communist. Since we're on the topic of food, there are probably a lot of them that are dead from eating too much grease, sugar and drinking too much alcohol and smoking tobacco and chewing tobacco. I actually started to chew tobacco and drink myself by the age of 12. With a little pot, but I've never been addicted to any drugs, I saw how it affected the drug abusers. I stayed away from religion also. Jesus and God is all right with me, but religion belongs in the septic tank IMHO!
Like what?
A-MEN.
The level of human potential in the US that is bound and gagged by GOP policy is not only extraordinarily inefficient, it is unforgivably detrimental to our human spirit and overall morale -as well as posing a damning national security threat.
When those of unconscionable wealth order their willing and eager hitmen within the GOP to raze any semblance of a social safety net, they have told us what they think of America and of America's future. That telling is, very clearly, that they do not believe in America, and as such, bare no responsibility to the overall health and continuity of our nation - the same nation that made them kings.
We humans have so much to offer - given fair circumstances. When those circumstances are designed and controlled by the rich, for the rich - it's no surprise to find a society in despair. Most people I have ever worked with (across a very broad range of occupations and geography) wanted more than a paycheck from their employment. They wanted to feel needed. They wanted purpose. They wanted opportunity. Yet none of these intangibles can be realized if all of a person's energy is used to simply keep from drowning.
Someday, somewhere, a billionaire is going to pull himself up out of his loot scraps, dust himself off, and show the rest of us how to "earn" all that money the Right way - shear luck and brutal selfishness.
My activist friends and I discussed this often. We thought about how it would enable people to volunteer and do their pay-it-forward work knowing they could pay their bills
Single-payer health care should come first, then secondary schooling or training.
None of us asked to be born, and despite our freedoms in this country, it is not a blessing to be an American for everyone. It's within our power to make it so. We deserve it. I wish these Republican religio-fascists understood that. They need to treat everyone like they treat the rich and corporations!
Thom doesn't mention recent experiment in Stockton, CA, which I think was pretty successful. Have to follow up.....
Expecting a program like UBI to accomplish only good results is erroneous; it assumes that all human beings have the same interest to prosper. Every person is unique, and has different desires, and we're all at different phases in our lives. By phases, I mean if you give a UBI to a teen who's at that phase in life where they just want to party, it could be just enough to push them over the edge into addiction; yet, give the same individual that UBI when they're in the phase of life when they, like the woman buying the car for work, just need that bit of a boost to do some good with their life and in the lives of others. The same UBI given to people with different desires, at differing stages of life, could have either helpful or destructive results.
That is the way of all things. Maverick.
Roughly 15% of the general public does not have the capacity to take care of themselves, let alone handle finances.
You are being generous, aren't you? If people took care of themselves, we wouldn't have an epidemic of obesity.
We are indeed what we eat. I am insulin resistant, noticed it in 2006, the doctor diagnosed it by one look at me. I am skinny, have been all of my life, but bicycling one day I looked down and noticed my swollen stomach, though I had something seriously wrong, as the fat was carried high, not low like a pot belly, but the rest of me was skinny as always, still is.
A dietician prescribed staying away from simple carbs, and sweets, but my favorite meals are simple carbs..
Finally in February I got concerned and started on a Wheatabix for brunch, no breakfast, and a salad for dinner. I've lost almost 40 lbs, and another 20 to go, and my blood glucose and A1C readings hover between 95 and 108 (mm/dl) (5.3 and 6 mmol/dl)/ PCP says I am still diabetic but managed.
Truthful the diet sucks, monotonous as hell, but I am protecting my health and extending my life, so worth the monotony. About once a week a treat myself to a tiny homemade pizza, I avoid all processed foods best as I can, and even the pizza sauce has to have nomore than5 ingredients, no sugars, all veggies.
Gluttony and satisfying cravings vs living healthier and longer, not a choice. My wife and cats need me.
Doing something consistently for thirty days, without a let up or fall back, is how you reprogram yourself. That is how I quit drinking and smoking. Never did drugs,nor smoked pot.
What I mean is can't perform activities of daily living, can't be punctual, can't read beyond a third grade level, etc. After I got back from Vietnam, they didn't know what to do with me. I gave medical discharges. In order to pass the AFQT requires about an 85 military IQ. We needed canon fodder so much we had Project 100,000, where we took people with a lower IQ. . Couldn't pass basic. Couldn't get an MOS other than "duty soldier," e.g. permanent KP.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_100,000
Likewise people who are unable to learn, can't pass a driver's test, can't make change, etc may/may not be considered to be "disabled."
WTF are you talking about Carolyn?
Exactly - that's what I'd like to know too.
I got it now. You are in charge of all those decisions that have to be made?
I couldn’t agree w you more. The highest tax bracket was taxed at 91% during the time when “America was great” and the safety nets keep getting smaller, and we are no where near a universal health care system as most industrialized and democratic countries have no problem funding. Inability to at catastrophic medical bills is a leading cause of bankruptcy leading to homelessness leading the expense of managing the crime and discarded citizens along the homeless villages. Don’t touch the wealthy’s irrevocable trusts and their guns.
Explain to me, what has already been done?
How, what, where, when?
What issue am I suppose to be voting on?
I humbly submit a revisit of Charles Dickens. I try to read "A Christmas Carol" anew not long after now, most years. Maybe "Oliver Twist" is why I am what I am now. Never quite put that into perspective, before,but it is one of the few books I read all, more than once, when I was young......
Thom -- GREAT post, which you may know is a major subject of mine. Here's my post today. "Great thinking about politics and UBI": https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/more-big-yeses-for-andrew-yang-and