Opinion of Universal Basic Income

[angus]

horrible idea, on many levels.

I prefer a situation in which if someone wants Tea, Earl Grey, then he walks over to the food replicator and orders it and it appears.  No money changes hands, no tips are expected.  This is the result of a very advanced economy and it will only come about with technological efficiency and motivation.  Government policies which guarantee money in one's pockets not only do not facilitate that end, but they work against it in at least two ways:  they propagate the inherent value of the barter system and they provide without motivation or inspiration for the betterment of mankind.

Maybe I'm a closet socialist.  I don't think I am, but I might be.  Or maybe I'm an unabashed objectivist.  I don't think I am, but I might be.  But the idea of a legally-guaranteed universal basic income would, or at least should, offend both of those groups, precisely because the idea of providing free to the great unwashed masses the crutches of capitalism does not seem to be a good way to advance the economy.