oascany comments on A three-year UBI study done in Germany shows that a guaranteed monthly check increased labor market exploration and increased work satisfaction.

[–] oascany@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I can see that a lot of thought went into this and while I agree with many points, I also have to point out that this much control over people's lives feels restrictive and authoritarian. Universal Basic Resources vs Universal Basic Income, I do lean towards UBR more, but not the rest of the government restriction. Housing, water, food, healthcare, and public transport are all we need to implement imo.

My suggestions, which I believe are much simpler, are co-op housing, potable tap water, ration cards, and free public transport at the level of the Netherlands. Healthcare, a lot of countries have sorted out so I don't think I'll comment much on - except to mention that I don't believe weight reduction surgery needs to be free.

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[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What parts are authoritarian? Aside from caps on excessive wealth and limitations on leadership, I don't see much limiting an individual's autonomy. As it is, most people are coerced into bad working conditions in order to live, which is a quite a shackle on personal liberty.

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[–] oascany@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

Assigning ranks based of job role, setting hard limits to work hours, income based on academic performance, pre-set food, bike, car, even cutlery and bedding - all of these things seem to reduce individuality and personal autonomy. It's reminiscent of armies. I understand that there is a whole economy and this is only the starting point, but I would suggest a UBI on top of the UBR so the individual can choose how much to spend on bedding, what kind of cutlery they want, etc. I think it would be too wasteful, time-consuming, and impractical for a government to micromanage its citizens' lives to such extents.

Edit: Forgot to mention but this system would also create a lot of waste. For example, what am I supposed to do with the cutlery I was given as a starter once I want to buy my own? Same with bedding, bike, and I think worst offender being the kei car. Not only would granting everyone a kei car increase car centrism and traffic density, it would be very wasteful because of how many resources go into making a car.

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[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 1 point 1 year ago

Thing is, you can democratize even the free stuff. For example, in order to sell luxury models of dishwasher on the market, a company has to offer a basic free model. People from there can select one of the free models on offer from however many companies, or opt to spend money to get something with more features.

In any case, an individual has to SPEND money to get education in a purely capitalist system. I think that getting money for luxuries from having good grades is much less authoritarian. A student can remain a student as long as they wish, in whatever field they are specializing in. Whereas, in our current capitalism, the vast majority of students are obligated to get a job, even while studying, otherwise they won't get to eat.

Hard limits on work hours are principally a limit on workplace abuse. In Japan, you have to work overtime for free, else you are fired. While there are undoubtedly workaholics that an hour restriction would displease, I think most people would like to have free time to be human, not cogs. Also, workhour limitations means an employer has to hire a larger amount of workers, spreading out workloads more evenly. This actually improves productivity and resilience. For example, pregnancy leave won't harm the workplace as much, since there are extra people to pick up the slack.

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