Quote of the Day

“Universal Basic Income” means “feed the goldfish in the aquarium, until the time is right to pull the plug.”

Matthew Bracken @Matt_Bracken
Posted on Gab November 13, 2025

This appears to be a reasonable hypothesis.

Whoever (the “elite”, a super AI, The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, etc.) has or acquires the power to pull the plug is likely to at some point in time come to the conclusion most other people are “just parasites”. From there the obvious conclusion is that the world would be a better place without “those people.”

I am listening to a fascination book, On Tyranny (Expanded Audio Edition): Updated with Twenty New Lessons from Russia’s War on Ukraine by Timothy Snyder*. Snyder is a historian and makes the claim there is a frequent crossroads in the late history of an empire. This is my paraphrasing so I may misrepresent him some… The controlling elites get tired of giving so much to the far reaches of the empire and decide it is time to collect on their investment. At about the same time the far reaches of the empire get tired of the controlling elites taking all their resources and decide it is time to get something in return. For some reason the resulting resolution does not go well. I could see Universal Basic Income arriving at a similar crossroads and those involved do not see the humor in the situation as much as I do.

Prepare appropriately.

* You may wish to skip the book part where he makes his case as to why President Trump is a tyrant, and get to the history of Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Vikings, and Russia where the good stuff is.