President Trump

I think I was having a stroke that day lol

 

Trump is a moron. I have no idea how people can actually follow what he says.

 

#yanggang

 

Inflation is when money comes out of nothing. UBI does not come out of nothing. It comes from a value added tax so that companies like amazon and google can't get away with paying 0 in taxes. Try again

 

UBI is a fundamentally good idea, as are VATs, though I'm not entirely sold on the funding of UBI with a VAT. Regardless, Yang has some wack ass policies that are almost definitely unconstitutional, but I appreciate a lot of his rhetoric and some of the things he brings to the conversation (with regard to trade, housing etc.)

 

This right here is your average PragerU subscriber

 

Could you elaborate on why you aren't sold? Side note, what is it that you find unconstitutional? I'm up to date on most of his policies but I'd be lying if I said I knew everything

 

I wouldn't call it completely objective, but this is a pretty good article explaining a few of my reservations with Yang

 

so yang has dropped out of the race, and now my money’s on either bernie or bloomberg becoming the nominee.

 

Vermin Supreme or bust

 

I swear dude, even after years reading your signature is always a total slap to the face.

Whats the worst part about it? The bathing furry? The anime list link? The "if you believe you're an idiot" thing from 2012? Holy crap, please dude you're killing me here

 

bernie or biden?

honestly no matter who is the nominee i’m looking forward to the presidential debates.

 

bernie

 

Please explain how it is fundamentally good. I like to call it bad math but that's just me.

 

UBI is fundamentally good because when we have a mechanism to reduce the number of indigent (That we indirectly subsidize anyway) it decreases pressure on society to house/feed/cloth, which is good for us all.

UBI is additionally good because it gives people who don't need that money to survive to have a little disposable income -- Which then goes into the economy and is good for the nation and everyone in the nation.

It's literally for the same reason that the Federal government is now handing out money - If the economy stops we're all screwed.

 

I'm not super educated on this specific topic so I'm not taking a stance by counter question, I'm just curious, if it is like the current relief package to keep the economy going then we don't normally need it because with a capitalist economy it naturally grows or is that wrong?

 

I guess it depends on where you land on the ideological divide if you think if this is needed or not in normal circumstances. I know in normal circumstances there are millions of Americans who are barely making it and millions of Americans who aren't making it. An additional 1000 a month may wholly prevent some calamity which will fall on these Americans in normal circumstances like an eviction, not having enough food or having utilities shut off, among other things.

I think the saying "A rising tide lifts all boats" applies here, if we lift those millions of people out of where they are now this leads to massive savings in money and aggravation to all of society from the medical bills that are unpaid from these people to potential homelessness and the costs that brings with it to crime. The money we would save as a society alleviating these issues may likely pay for the program in itself. Counties and states are not having to pay for incarceration or unpaid medical treatments, etc.

I think capitalism is great and I'd rather have this form than most others -- But we should admit that capitalism as is isn't working for many Americans and we should probably change that before it becomes a bigger problem down the road.

 

I agree that on paper, it's a cool concept, but we need to keep in mind inflation as well as how it'll be paid for. The cost is primarily derived from a VAT tax from what I remember, but the problem is that a VAT tax is generally be regressive and hurt those who need it more. A regressive tax that pays the poor seems like it just complicates the situation while not changing much. Now if we were to implement UBI, imagine the amount of inflation that would be created from the massive spike in funds being injected into the economy. As the gov scales it's spending (this is meant in conjunction with other spending plans), the dollar is going to get diluted shit. Also keep in mind that based on what Americans are doing with those dollars, prices will adjust subsequently. It's part of free-market capitalism. The effects of what the gov and the Fed are doing right now will not be seen for years to come, but it cannot come without consequence. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

 

It was my understanding that in this thought exercise we were all accepting the premise that UBI would have to be paid for, as opposed to literally printing new money to fund it. If we're not printing new money but just taxing it from other sources then it wouldn't provoke inflation in such a way -- Because it's already in the system. I'd be open to how we fund it but ultimately I know the largest corporations that were founded here and pay no tax on their profits, virtually, is a prime target on how to fund this -- Especially since these large corporations generally will be the one to benefit from it the most because people have more money to spend at said corporations.