The idea seems a bit sketchy, but we need solutions to these problems, and this might be it. As long as there is overwhelming evidence that this works, then im not gonna argue. I will give this idea some time because i think it has some worth. Great animation by the way.
Reviews for "Why Basic Income?"
Thank you for explaining the interconnecting socioeconomic web between the safety net known as "Basic Income" in regards to reducing poverty and crime prevention. For a 100 years, people have known the statistics and the connection between the lack of financial opportunities and crime, yet the poor are still victimized because the ones with wealth do not want to lose their power. Shaming the poor keeps them and others from questioning an unjust economic system.
I am an educated American college graduate who's job sector was displaced by the tech industry; I changed careers two times, held 7 temporary jobs, and still have no luck. If Canada passes the "Basic Income" law, I will be the first American to work in Canada because it is nice to have the Basic Income as a safety net. I'm unemployed and live at home and always looking for work. There must be 30 million lazy Americas, too.
adamanimates responds:
Yeah, I think the only way some people will realize there's a problem is when they find themselves out of work and get tired of blaming themselves.
This is a great, informative video with a lovely animation style. Well done!
I'm partial to like this video because I'm on a socialist kick these days, but this is a good intro to basic income. Although, if I do have to critique the video itself, I would have liked more specific examples of the benefits of basic income and counterarguments to the "humans are lazy" theory. How do the different forms of basic income work around the world? What can and can't the previously homeless man afford with basic income? I appreciate the additional resources in the author comments, but it's a fault to not have mentioned inflation and basic income
tldr; more examples and info in the actual video, please! Thank you
adamanimates responds:
It was originally much longer, but I decided it was more valuable as a shorter intro to the idea, and then people can branch off into the articles linked if they'd like more info. You're right that inflation is a major concern, but it's hard to get into all the economic arguments in a few sentences. If I had to sum it up in the video, I might have said that there's no evidence for people's fears. Most BI proposals aren't creating new money, they are distributing it via extra taxes on capital. I would argue that the increased economic activity from people finally being able to meet their needs would lead to more competition, and prices would stay similar.
Look, we have this sort of thing in Israel, the result is that unemployed people can have more children cause each child is another paycheck. Many (the majority) of those children are similar to their parents and are not as excited or competitive about maintaining a job. This is how our society nurtures them to be and it is in the nature of their parents.
People like myself who are working hard, are paying for these children and exhausting their savings and recreational money, staying at home after work and mostly sleeping cause tomorrow is another day and we have to work hard to support the freeloaders. We are basically forced to work for free to help strangers by paying taxes. I know this may sound strange to you but knowing that a large portion of my income will be drained by taxes does not entice me to work harder which means there is less for everyone.
People who are poor don't deserve to be poor, just like people who are short don't deserve to be be short and people who are painfully ugly don't deserve that either. People like myself who are bad at sports, deserve to be bad at sports? no. People who are bad at satisfying the needs of others, get less value back from these strangers who owe them little. Sure they don't "deserve" to be born less gifted in the practicality domain but it happened. You are not breaking people's legs because they are highly gifted at sports or pouring acid on their face cause they are pretty, so why would you want to forcibly take money from people who are gifted at working and doing what people need and want?
It wouldn't be bad if poor unemployed people wouldn't procreate but they do at a higher rate than hard working "rich" ones which means their lives are not as terrible as you claim. In fact, the level of life afforded by a poor person today is far better than that of the same person 100 years ago.
To be honest, I am all for what you say, a basic income for artist and people who follow a more non-conformistic life. Just as long as they don't have children and not because I want to decide for them, it is just unfair to ask me to support other kids when because of my job, I hardly have time to see my own child.
adamanimates responds:
I think it's a shitty situation that you barely have time to see your family. I also don't think that you should have to pay so much in tax to support the poor. There is more than enough money at the top of the income scale to pay for everything I'm talking about. The rich don't need to work at all because all their money comes from capital gains. They tend to own the media and so thoughts like "the poor are lazy" and "taxes are bad" get pushed into the culture. They even call themselves "job creators."
Really they're just working you to death for their own benefit and trying to get you to blame the poor for not working as hard as you.