So-called Basic Income - Stockton, Ca.

[G26ster]

How is this fundamentally different from the Permanent Fund Dividend in Alaska?

The Alaska dividend is derived from funds the state receives from private companies that are harvesting Alaskan resources for profit.

Certainly the details are different but they're both fundamentally forms of wealth distribution, with a per capital benefit.

Have to respectfully disagree. Wealth distribution is when you take from one income group and give it to another. That's not the case in Alaska. If so, what income group is Alaska taking from? The money distributed is from investment the state makes with royalties received from corporations profiting from resources owned by the people of Alaska. The money distributed does not come from the oil companies, or the people of Alaska. Saying it's wealth redistribution is like saying the income you receive from your inestments is wealth redistribution.

[Chemist45]

Abraham wrote

Is it per person or family - beats me?

Where does the money come from - beats me?

What's the criteria to qualify for so-called free money - beats me?

Per family.

The money is coming from a philanthropist - so, no tax dollars. Also no way to keep it up or expand it unless the giver has an endless supply of money.

The families will be selected by a "community engagement process".
See:



But, hey, as long as we're googling Stockton, California, let's see what else pops up:
Just 3 years ago, Stockton became the most populous US city to declare bankruptcy. People are leaving the city in droves because almost every tax dollar goes to pay government employee pensions and services are almost non-existent.
But I'm sure paying some people $500 per month to stay will encourage businesses to come to and invest in Stockton.
Yeah.
Sure.

[Abraham]

Recall, Stockton is in...wait for it...california.

The communist state...where lefty insanity reigns supreme...

Finland tried it, failed and are or will very soon abandon the idea of paying people not to work.

Idiots!

[Allons]

As an incentive, give the 500 a month to people who are employed. Maybe that would encourage others to get a job.

[Syntyr]

Ontario just announced they are stopping their UBI trial 1 year into the 3 year program. They found out it was unsustainable... gee go figure!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ ... -1.4768626

[Paladin]

Just failed in Finland. It will fail there.

https://www.investors.com/politics/edit ... zes-sloth/

I think this quote is important:

Past Failures

But we've already tried it, as Mimi Texeira of The Daily Signal noted recently: "In the 1970s, the (U.S.) government ran four random control experiments across six states to try the negative income tax, a similar policy proposal (to the basic income) that was popular at the time. In each test, the work disincentive effect was disastrous. For every $1,000 in added benefits to a family, there was an average reduction in $660 of wages from work."

That's right. A basic income would tax work to the hilt so that others could be paid to do nothing. Common sense dictates that you reward work, not punish it. The Finns figured it out. Why haven't we?

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

As Jordan Peterson says, people need function and meaning in their lives:

Everyone needs a concrete, specific goal—an ambition, and a purpose—to limit chaos and make intelligible sense of his or her life.

[philip964]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ ... -1.4768626

Ontario Canada ends basic income experiment. Not sustainable. Yah think.

[BBYC]

Welfare by any other name would still stink.

[Abraham]

If you get 'free money' for not working, isn't that a form of 'income inequality' if I can't have free money too?

[Bitter Clinger]

[RoyGBiv]

UBI is gross stupidity run amok, with a fancy Prog moniker. It's SOCIALISM.
Just ask Venezuela, and pretty much everyone else that's tried it, how that works out in the long run.

[Abraham]

A very small minority here want to tweak the un-twekable and then are certain unearned money will work out great for the recipients, you betcha...

Nope, it won't work as has been proven globally, but the slow keeping insisting if we only implement 'free money' properly, it'll be miraculous in it's scope of doing good.

Nope again.

What is that old say: Something along the lines of if you keep doing the same thing over and over, but continue to fail, but keep on doing it because one day you'll get the result you want...

There's a word for that kind of thinking.

It's called 'Stupidity!

[JustSomeOldGuy]

I am reminded that the first attempt at socialism on american soil was "The Jamestown Experiment" (https://www.historyisfun.org/jamestown- ... jamestown/) and it took a year or less for them to drop the idea as ineffective.......

Many of the original colonists were upper-class Englishmen, and the colony lacked sufficient laborers and skilled farmers.
...
Captain John Smith became the colony’s leader in September 1608 – the fourth in a succession of council presidents – and established a “no work, no food” policy.

yet another example of "those who do not study history, are doomed to repeat it....."

[BBYC]

I am reminded that the first attempt at socialism on american soil was "The Jamestown Experiment" (https://www.historyisfun.org/jamestown- ... jamestown/) and it took a year or less for them to drop the idea as ineffective.......

Many of the original colonists were upper-class Englishmen, and the colony lacked sufficient laborers and skilled farmers.
...
Captain John Smith became the colony’s leader in September 1608 – the fourth in a succession of council presidents – and established a “no work, no food” policy.

yet another example of "those who do not study history, are doomed to repeat it....."

Then slavery came to North America. Coincidence?

https://www.myajc.com/lifestyles/1619-t ... PLDBX4mnK/.

The first Africans to land in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 were recorded as “20 and odd Negroes.”

Originating from Angola, these slaves were stolen from a Portuguese slave ship, then transported to an English warship flying a Dutch flag, and were eventually sold to colonial settlers.

[OneGun]

How is this Universal basic income any different than a massive ponzi scheme? Didn't Madoff go to prison for this very scheme?