When I read stuff like this it is like I’m reading something written by an eight grader:
It’s Time for a Guaranteed Basic Income in Washington State
With basic incomes, more people are able to afford food and housing, pay off debt, get full-time jobs, save for emergencies, and get the physical and mental health support they need. Cash payments dramatically improve the lives of our neighbors and communities. That’s a source of hope. Unfortunately, the very need for GBI also reveals just how many of us are close to losing everything; even people working multiple jobs that offer little security for workers.
There is no hint of appreciation for the glaring problems of costs, fraud, and demotivation. I was reminded of what I posted about The Communist Manifesto:
Assumptions critical to the reasoning which followed were unsupported and, at least to my present day perspective, either blatantly wrong or highly suspect. Even conceding the authors their assumptions without contest the conclusions reached with such confidence were as unstable as any house of cards.
And yet, these people, with such simplistic thinking, are making progress.
It is designed to fail and crash the complex economic system of incentives and production. When you realize the goal is to either destroy or enslave, it makes sense.
I was thinking along the lines of 5th or 6th grade…
Jeff B.
the proponents of such schemes, to the extent not motivated as noted in previous comments, are simply not as concerned about the fact that you and i will bear the costs of same, as you and i are concerned about having to bear the costs of same, e.g., their schemes.
they do not intend to bear the burden. they intend that you and i will bear the burden. after all is said and done, they believe themselves to be plato’s “thinkers,” and you and i to be the beasts of burden. they are the philosopher kings, and we are the philosopher’s serfs, content to tote the weight of their thoughts.
it is their view of the natural order of things, and it is not our place to question the natural order of things. we are to do as told. and, as rolf noted, to them it all “makes sense.”
Most leftists are first order effect thinkers. They think having money’s better than not having money… so let’s just give people money! What they don’t think about: where does the money come from? If every adult in the state gets a GBI payment, then some people will have to pay taxes in order to fund it. WA doesn’t allow an income tax, so will they bump the cap gains tax that people are already leaving the state over? Bump property taxes, sales taxes? Try to change the WA constitution to make income taxes legal… and watch more highly paid folks who can work remotely leave so just the service workers are leftto foot the bill? Massively bump corporate taxes, and then watch Amazon, Microsoft, etc follow Boeing’s lead?
What happens when your state follows the California path is that you end up like California… the California that exists today and not the California dream as built with responsible social and fiscal policies before the late 80s.