Pro(re)gressives have some frighteningly stupid ideas. One is that everyone should get a guaranteed income from the government, no matter what. The cost for that is obviously trillions of dollars, when we already have trillion dollar deficits. But what is really most amazing is the complete inability of these nutjobs to understand human behavior. If you give people money, do you really think they are going to become more responsible, productive citizens. A recent experiment created by a private foundation gave a 1000 low-income people $1000 a month, and another group $50 a month. The people who got the higher amount, worked less, had longer spells of unemployment (gee, who would have thought), and had less total income. If they lived in a household, the household ended up with less total income, because the spouse or partner also worked less. People didn’t go find better jobs. What did they do with the less time worked–leisure. Anyone with a milligram of common sense could tell you this would be the outcome. (NBER Paper)
Now this was a relatively small payment compared to what some pro(re)gressives have proposed, so imagine what would happen if you were giving people $2000 or $3000 a month. We already have a slacker problem in this country, which these kind of programs exacerbate.
We can pursue our passions, not worry, not work…..UBI is for losers.
The single most effective anti – poverty program ever instituted was the “ending welfare as we know it” enacted during the Clinton administration (republican congress forced clinton to sign the legislation). The program basically forced people off welfare and forced them to get jobs to support themselves. The progressives have done everything in their power to destroy the most successful program.