the following started out as response to a comment made within the thread of a post I shared about basic income. Unfortunately my response got too long, as I began to address more than just the one comment but also a lot of the other things the individual had said or intimated on other parts of the thread and for some reason, wouldn't post on the thread. But that's of no import, I still felt I wanted to save these thoughts so posting them here.
Here's a link to the post I had shared. ammario-reza/those-lazy-jobless-bums
Here is the comment I was replying to.
"How are people being suppressed from prospering? There are boundless opportunities in this country if you work for it. The son of a janitor can get his Doctorate of Philosophy and become a distinguished professor as my father did. A child born in the Bronx can become one of the world's leading astrophysics, as did Neil deGrasse Tyson. One is not limited in opportunity by their birth, as is the case in many places in this world. There is the ability for opportunity and advancement in the united states. One must simply strive for it. To remove the stresses of life would be to remove the impetus of life."
There are not boundless opportunities. Something you need to think about is the phrase "Privilege is thinking something isn't a problem because it isn't a problem for you" Kudos to your father, but not everyone can do what he did there aren't boundless janitor positions and there not boundless openings for professors. Some kind of hand up was given to anyone who prospers. There is no such thing as a self made millionaire. The people at the top get the most welfare of all.
The facts are that technological unemployment is real, happening now and happening fast. And more and more jobs are moving to machines, more and more jobs will move to machines. And that is a good thing, they are more efficient, and often more resource thrifty. So this idea you have of "make something and sell it" is a problem. We do not need more production; We do not need more consumption and waste and the making of things simply for profit. This idea you have of everyone working at a job doing something productive is unsustainable and actually a liability. We live on a finite planet. The planet needs us to stop producing. Another fact is that if everyone on the planet consumed as much as the average US citizen, four Earths would be needed to sustain them. That's not ok. But hey at least we're not the worst. The UAE beat us at 5.5 planets. Whose going to pay for the basic income, do some research there have been many calculations as to how this could be achieved. Earth Overshoot Day 2016 lands on August 8 this is the date when humanity has exhausted nature’s budget for the year. So again, people need to stop the constant producing. Laying around on a lawn chair or a body's couch for awhile will actually be good for the planet and just might keep us from extinction.
As to the idea that people would be lazy. Scientific study has proven otherwise. They show that emotional sources of motivation are more powerful than money, such as building something lasting, contributing to society, etc. Money is a byproduct, it is simply the thing we need within this system in order to subsist. To have basic human comforts that enable us to have the great ideas, the insight the motivation. And I believe money is a lazy way to calculate one's worth. But that's another topic. Basic Income experiments have proved this idea erroneous. "Large-scale experiments done in cities like Seattle and Denver," in the 70's, " found that surprisingly, hardly anyone actually stopped working, and instead reduced their hours slightly, with men reducing their hours the least — by a maximum of 8%" Very similar results have been found more recently in studies in India, Kenya and Uganda. Another good question, is, would you be lazy, ________, if you were given a monthly living grant, would you be lazy? Probably not, right, so why do you assume anyone else would be?
As for anyone who would refuse to do anything. I would think of that as a mental health issue. There is no reason an able, rational, mentally healthy person would refuse to do "anything" to just lie around forever. So in the case of the few people that might, or the people who are physically or otherwise mentally unable to 'contribute' yes, I would most definitely be fine with their being housed and fed. I like to think of justice as it was described in the first section of Plato's Republic. I'll summarize it briefly "...a dog if harmed becomes a worse dog by the standard of excellence by which we judge dogs...must we not then say of a man that if harmed he becomes worse by the standards of human excellence...?" The reason this is profound to me, is because when you get right down to it, making sure that every single humans basic needs are met, when it is possible to do so, is the proper course of action not really because it's the right thing to do, but rather because it is the efficient thing to do. If people are lazy and lackluster it is because they live in a society that forces them into competition and often unnecessary labor just in order to survive. It forces them to have money and a job in order to exist and yet there never seems to be enough to go around.
In the event that this was too short, here are some links:
