You know, people like this are just so blindingly wrong. This post reminds me of a conversation I had last year with a guy who opined that instead of "wasting" money on Ukraine, we could be spending it on problems here in America. There's 2 primary things wrong about this proposition. 1st, these problems existed well before Russia invaded Ukraine, so why didn't we spend the money to fix them? The answer is because there was not enough political will to do it. There appears to be some now, so hopefully the proposed UBI legislation will pass, it needs to. But the point is that our social problems exist at least in part because of a lack of will, not a lack of money, which means, just as you've noted, that we can do things like fund Ukraine's fight against Russia, AND provide financial support to Americans that need it. 2ndly, although it's not widely known, almost every dollar spent on assisting Ukraine is spent right here in the US. The way Ukraine support works, is that the money allocated goes to arms factories in America where new munitions and weapons are produced, and existing, older munitions and weapons are sent to Ukraine. This does 3 things; it gives good paying jobs to Americans boosting our economy, it replenishes our weapon stocks with up-to-date material, and it supports Ukraine, which is fighting a war against an authoritarian aggressor, so that we don't have to. It's a win-win trifecta, and more people should be made aware of this so that we don't lose support for Ukraine spending, because besides helping Ukraine it's helping us too.
People on the Far-Right act as if it's an either/or proposition. It's not. There's no reason we can't do both...but, as you point out, it's a lack of political will. Even if we do help Ukraine, there's little, if any, will to help the needy among us...'cuz that's SOCIALISM!!!, don'tchaknow?
"Because the program is universal, it has less of an up-front cost. Most government programs that involve pay-outs are means tested. This involves civil service employees who must ensure applicants meet specific income-related guidelines." -- Damn. This is one of those things that is just so blindingly obvious that it never occurs to you until someone else mentions it.
Of course it is the administrative costs. This is where most of American "health care" spending goes. The VA basically eliminates it with a single, uniform system across the entire VA. In other contexts, its called "single payer healthcare."
But the eliminatioin of administrative costs in UBI simply never occurred to me until you shared the idea here. Thanks for this!
You know, people like this are just so blindingly wrong. This post reminds me of a conversation I had last year with a guy who opined that instead of "wasting" money on Ukraine, we could be spending it on problems here in America. There's 2 primary things wrong about this proposition. 1st, these problems existed well before Russia invaded Ukraine, so why didn't we spend the money to fix them? The answer is because there was not enough political will to do it. There appears to be some now, so hopefully the proposed UBI legislation will pass, it needs to. But the point is that our social problems exist at least in part because of a lack of will, not a lack of money, which means, just as you've noted, that we can do things like fund Ukraine's fight against Russia, AND provide financial support to Americans that need it. 2ndly, although it's not widely known, almost every dollar spent on assisting Ukraine is spent right here in the US. The way Ukraine support works, is that the money allocated goes to arms factories in America where new munitions and weapons are produced, and existing, older munitions and weapons are sent to Ukraine. This does 3 things; it gives good paying jobs to Americans boosting our economy, it replenishes our weapon stocks with up-to-date material, and it supports Ukraine, which is fighting a war against an authoritarian aggressor, so that we don't have to. It's a win-win trifecta, and more people should be made aware of this so that we don't lose support for Ukraine spending, because besides helping Ukraine it's helping us too.
People on the Far-Right act as if it's an either/or proposition. It's not. There's no reason we can't do both...but, as you point out, it's a lack of political will. Even if we do help Ukraine, there's little, if any, will to help the needy among us...'cuz that's SOCIALISM!!!, don'tchaknow?
"Because the program is universal, it has less of an up-front cost. Most government programs that involve pay-outs are means tested. This involves civil service employees who must ensure applicants meet specific income-related guidelines." -- Damn. This is one of those things that is just so blindingly obvious that it never occurs to you until someone else mentions it.
Of course it is the administrative costs. This is where most of American "health care" spending goes. The VA basically eliminates it with a single, uniform system across the entire VA. In other contexts, its called "single payer healthcare."
But the eliminatioin of administrative costs in UBI simply never occurred to me until you shared the idea here. Thanks for this!