Basic Income Could Be the Moonshot of Our Generation
The real reason to oppose Basic Income isn&#x27;t based on moralizing about social programs, but that what it promises is the <i>exact opposite</i> of the net effect it will have!<p>I too want a world where people are not on a treadmill that forces them into wage slavery. But the first step is recognizing that the primary driver of modern individuals&#x27; needing to work is the payment of rent on assets that are becoming ever-less feasible to purchase outright.<p>This is the direct result of the past few decades of extreme inflationary monetary policy. In a time of such technological process, prices should be steadily <i>dropping</i> at an unprecedented rate. But instead, the Fed actually has an explicit policy of forcing them to rise, with the <i>actual professed goal</i> to keep everybody working full time!!<p>Since new money is created by loaning against specific assets, the newly created money just ends up bidding up the book-prices of consumer-desired assets, closing the CPI feedback loop when the rent (interest) has finally risen enough to take up consumer surplus.<p>Basic income is thus just an extension of this ongoing policy that naively <i>adds to</i> this inflationary treadmill - giving everyone in SF $1k&#x2F;mo will result in housing rent going up by roughly $1k&#x2F;mo.<p>The real solution we need is the <i>exact opposite</i> - a return to sane monetary policy where individuals are able to <i>save</i> and able to reasonably <i>purchase</i> assets like houses. The ability to save and build wealth gives people stability (not worrying about being out of work for a few months) and thus economic bargaining power to demand higher real wages and fewer working hours. <i>This</i> is the equilibrium mechanic that will constructively respond to the need for ever-less work, finally letting wider society see the gains from increased productivity.