A few nights ago on Heelturn, Richard Spencer said "the right should take UBI as a position from the left and own it." This is one of the few topics that seems to transcend the political spectrum. Mark Zuckerberg has called for it, as has Charles Murray, and even Elon Musk said it's going to have to be tried at some point.
A lot of people get their panties in a knot about it, and I get where they're coming from. If you consider the current political system and the way Zuckerberg would want it, you'd have that globohomo government doling out the vouchers and they'd ensure integration since "beggars can't be choosers," the hand that gives is always above the hand that takes.
That is a concrete argument against UBI.
On the other hand, you can't deny that the need for workers is decreasing, and I don't know about you, but I wholly-embrace the shift toward Japan where going to restaurants for a quick bite is handled more by machines than some lifeless worker who contemplates suicide while doing a routine base task.
And even all of us Zig Forumsocks have ridiculed time and time again how many of the jobs we have are bullshit jobs, jobs created for the sake of jobs. Don't you share the sentiment that you are glad to be doing away with the DMV worker and instead be able to do all of that junk online?
Say what you want, but technology has made us all more atomized, and many of us – and many more to come – unemployable; and, in the case of the middle class, more like a lower class, as the elite have consolidated a lot of power into patents, copyrights, technological schemes, and reduced much of "work" for those who don't own the means of production (rubs hands) simplified shit clicking and pushing and giving fake smiles to people.
None of the Uber drivers want to do that job, and none of the riders want a real driver the day they have their faith in automated cars, which is coming. Nobody wants to deal with an apathetic cashier, which is why the self-checkouts are backed up every time you go to the store.
This is part of the future whether we like it or not, and the right needs to realize a lot of these people packed into reddit toilets like latestagecaplitalism and lostgeneration are all waiting for UBI, because they're all working lifeless dead-end jobs with tons of debt, or living on credit cards.
Don't pretend they're all living the high-life either. A lot of Americans are getting paid dirt and living with roommates, and inherited nothing from the boomers, who – while many of them were just pigs who lived like pigs – also were dealing with the burgeoning globohomo realities.
The future has two options:
- Option A: UBI
- Option B: most of the people who are making under 50k/yr now die off.
Pick one.