Zimbler0:
Re: “Anybody have any ideas on just how these clowns
intend to pay for this?”
Obviously, since UBI will cost Chicago $4/billion more annually than it currently has for ALL of its programs, the city won't be implementing UBI. What it wants to do is to implement a pilot program to study the effect of free money on people's lives. $500/month for 1,000 families will cost the city $6 million + administrative and analysis costs. Let's call it $12 million per year. Even with its debt, Chicago can finance that.
Liberal proponents of the study want to see what free money will do to people - specifically to very poor people. Critics argue that UBI will sap the recipients of their desire to work. Proponents say the opposite.
Since the study is almost certainly going to be limited to impoverished people, it would be misleading to say that this will be a test of true UBI.
What the study will be testing is whether $6,000/year with no strings attached will result in people currently on welfare seeking jobs, whereas they currently don't because they'd lose their welfare money and can't find a job that pays enough to be worth risking that.
So that's the point of the study. I suppose it might be worthwhile to know the answer.
To answer your question of who would pay for a full-scale implementation of UBI: Corporations. If robots are destined to take over most jobs, then corporations will be the beneficiaries of the technology and would be the logical choice. In fact, heavy taxes levied against robot-using corporations might even incentivize them to hire humans instead. For a while, anyway.
IMO, hundreds of millions of American jobs ARE going to be lost to automation and UBI will therefore be inevitable. If you and I live long enough, we'll see it happen. Some say the job losses to automation and robots will be a huge issue as soon as 2025. I don't know about that, but I'd be surprised if full-scale UBI isn't here within twenty years.
Not a good thing, btw. Its implementation will reflect the horrendous job climate that's going to exist. It will mean that nearly everyone will be very, very poor. And then, one day, corporations will find a way to stop paying.
Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months
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