Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
UBI would be amazing for the economy. It's basically Trickle UP economics. The money will still eventually end up in the pocket of some rich guy, but at least it will grease the gears of the economy on the way up.
Citation needed
Challenge accepted, but I'm not going to cite some media story. Instead, I'll use a real-life example that we ALL lived through:
During the Covid quarantine, Americans were issued checks to help offset financial issues caused by not working, essentially UBI. While everyone thought the quarantine would cause an economic slump, the government-issued checks had the opposite effect - the economy boomed.
When all those Americans got extra money, they didn't do what wealthy people do, and hoard it, they spent it. They caught up on bills, they bought new vehicles, appliances, furniture, etc. All that government money poured into the economy, and it boomed. Delivery services like Uber Eats and Door Dash finally got their feet under them, and became viable businesses for the first time. Huge online retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, etc. all reported record sales, and record profits, and record stock prices.
It was thought that if everyone stayed home from work, the economy would crash, but as long as they had money to spend, the economy actually increased significantly. Economically, it was the best part of Trump's first term.
That wasn't a theory, or a study, or even a small test case in a city or even a state. That was a nationwide experiment, using multiple payments over a fairly long time period, and it proved that giving money to the lower economic strata produces huge economic gains, far more than giving tax incentives to the wealthy.
And it didn't hurt the wealthy at all. They still got even richer, but everyone else got to benefit too. Trickle UP Economics works, and the only reason not to do it is if the Ruling Class simply doesn't want us to have it, for their own selfish reasons, which is primarily because it is easier to maintain control of poor people who rely on you for what little money they are allowed to have.
If the Sociopathic Oligarchs and Corporations won't come to their senses, and cooperate with a new economic paradigm that works for all citizens, then sooner or later we will spontaneously switch to Robin Hood Economics, and that usually comes accompanied with things like guillotines, nooses, and firing squads. They won't like that at all. It will be far better for them if we shift to Trickle UP Economics before we get to that point.