A major mental hurdle that average or low income people have to overcome is the panicky idea that they would be taxed to finance a universal basic income. It’s the fear of: “Oh, no, I – a hard worker – will have to pay for lazy welfare queens.” However, a properly done UBI would do the exact opposite, unlike our welfare system. Properly done it would confiscate the obscene wealth in assets kept at the top of our country’s wealth pyramid (where the bottom 80% of people own less than 7% of the nation) and distribute the dividends to us all — as citizen dividends instead of privileged billionaire dividends. It’s our country. Our economy. The dividends of our prosperous economy should be our dividends (not the exclusive privilege of the rich) and create financial security for us all.
The following interview video talks about this:
(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Matt Bruenig Talks about His Viral Article on Universal Basic Income”)
Note: A UBI is not exclusive to a federal job guarantee or other helpful measures that will be discussed here tomorrow (don’t miss it!). It’s not either or. Just like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, FDR’s job creation, the G.I. Bill, and other programs worked best together, so will new measures we can take.
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