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Originally Posted by redpoint5
I haven't written off the basic income argument entirely yet, but it seems the outcome of such a thing would be a much slower economy with more consolidation of wealth.
There would still be roughly the same number of people on the streets; perhaps more, once they blow through their basic income on self-destructive coping habits. Poor people aren't poor because they are necessarily oppressed, but because they have no meaning for living. A basic income doesn't give people meaning; it gives them dependency.
That said, those who make an effort to use their resources wisely and find purpose for existence would be much more likely to make wise use of a minimum income. Responsible people would know how best to allocate funds towards food, shelter, clothing, and healthcare, rather than the government deciding how best to provide each of those things. We could get rid of lots of wasteful government programs (housing for one).
Regarding the cost of resources; the universe has no concept of wealth. It's entirely relative to our own values, so it makes sense that the price of commodities is related to how much human time, effort, and ingenuity was spent to produce it.
There's no objective way to value a scarce resource other than the free market collectively (and subjectively) deciding. Should we put a tax on helium so we aren't wasting it in kids balloons? What is the appropriate tax? How do we know that would be appropriate? Is it wasteful to use helium in medical devices that save lives? What if there is some super useful, yet discovered purpose for helium in the future? What if we misvalue the worth of helium now (likely) for future purposes? What if in the future we're able to create whatever elements we want because we've mastered atomic manipulation and have more effectively harnessed the sun's power, rendering all minerals nearly valueless?
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I'm past halfway with Thomas Robert Malthus's book,7th-Edition, on population.He's already mentioned what a train wreck every attempt to ease the suffering of the poor turned out to be.
These 'poor laws' only created more poor people.
When you arbitrarily,through government fiat,increase income,the new money creates demand for the existing goods and services,creating demand-pull inflation,and before long,prices have risen to cancel out any benefit of the pay raise.And the inflated prices may not ever go back down.
The poor don't save,and if their day job fails,they've set aside nothing to get through hard times.
And some will spend it all at the 'alehouse' or with hookers,drugs,gambling,etc.. It's what some people do when they have a safety net.I've seen it firsthand.