Originally posted on Quora December 28, 2022
UBI does not solve any of the root problems of capitalism which originate in institutional monopoly power whether that be the monopoly of land, money, intellectual property or regulatory capture. What you have with UBI instead is a moving target that legislation is too slow to keep pace with and not just one but millions of moving targets because the real cost of living varies not just by state, county or city but also individually. Just like the living wage, UBI suffers from the same false assumption/fallacy of division that the cost of subsistence can be reduced to a single figure at the national or state level; the people who propose such policies are not even in the ballpark. For instance, a person making $15.00 hr working 40 hours a week (160 hours a month) will take home approximately $2,000 a month after taxes. The highest rent they would be able to afford without housing instability, going by the HUD standard of spending no more 30% of income on housing is $600. Do you know of any units that rent that cheap anywhere? Much less the states and cities where it exists like DC and California? Even making $22 an hour (50% more than Biden's min wage for federal contractors) my $832 month rent is already around 30% of my net income and that's pretty much low income housing. Maybe the people who propose these measures have the best of intentions and are trying to doctor up the economy but they're just applying a band aid over a hemorrhaging artery. Band aid policies might slow down the arterial bleeding a little but they are useless in the long run as it will still bleed out. The only permanent solution is land value capture which means homeowners and landlords would lose a large chunk of their equity to keep real estate affordable in perpetuity. Of course, leveling entire fortunes in real estate is less politically feasible, with a government controlled by propertied and monied interests, than pretending to help low income renters and the structurally unemployed by paying them just enough to have a roof over their head and not starve. Having a job should be more than just subsistence, it's also a means to build wealth and gain more autonomy over your life. That is something UBI subsistence income cannot do which is probably why the WEF jet setting superclass likes it so much; if your only income is UBI you will truly own nothing and live at the mercy of propertied and monied interest as a permanent member of the rent serf class. And for billionaires like Suckerberg and Gates it's basically just bribing propertyless peasants with just enough crumbs from their master table to keep them from revolting which is not all too different from the poor laws of medieval Britain.