The problem with UBI -- or even debates about raising the minimum wage -- is that you can't fix this problem by throwing money at it. UBI is the idea that we will cut some folks a check and somehow that will make them stop being poor and that's not why people are poor.
People are poor because increased real world wealth means the ceiling on how high things can go keeps going up and the floor is falling away. We do nothing to ensure that ordinary people who have a social security check or a part-time job or whatever can access healthcare and find a small, inexpensive place to live and can get around without owning some expensive assed car.
Cutting people a check doesn't change the fact that you can't live without a car in most of the US and you can't find a cheap rental on the open market and government programs have wait lists that are months or years long.
If trying to stay housed costs half or more of your income and you must own a car to make life work at all in this country and that can cost another third of your income, then you have crumbs to cover groceries if you aren't part of the upper classes. Cutting people a small check doesn't fundamentally change that.
We have built a system where our expectation for "basic, decent housing" gets ever larger and more elaborate and we keep raising the table stakes for being able to get housing at all. Cutting people a check not only doesn't change that fact, it may just cause landlords to raise the rent.
People advocating for UBI are people who imagine that cutting poor people a check is an easy answer to fix their problems. They imagine that poor people are stupid, uneducated and lazy but don't have REAL problems -- like health issues -- and are not victims of a broken system where if you can't drive for some reason, well, it sucks to be you and no amount of money will make it stop really sucking because you will never really have independence.
Sure, if you are rich enough, you get to hire a cab or a chaffeur and that bites less than being poor and unable to drive in this country, but, no, you aren't allowed to just walk or bike to nearby amenities. We refuse to build that world, not because it can't be built but because it doesn't match our deeply seated ideas of the suburban good life as some kind of proper American Dream.
Our housing policies need to change and our approach to the built environment needs to change. It needs to be possible for people who currently have social security or a retirement check or a disability check to find a small place on the open market without getting on a government wait list and to make life work without owning a car.
UBI will not fix any of those things. In fact, UBI is likely to make us even less likely to address those issues, not more likely.
It makes it even more likely that rich people will go "Quit your bitching. You have your UBI. If you can't make your life work when we give you money for free, you loser you, this is not our problem. Stop bothering us while we are trying to enjoy our lifestyles of the rich and shameless lives."
People are poor because increased real world wealth means the ceiling on how high things can go keeps going up and the floor is falling away. We do nothing to ensure that ordinary people who have a social security check or a part-time job or whatever can access healthcare and find a small, inexpensive place to live and can get around without owning some expensive assed car.
Cutting people a check doesn't change the fact that you can't live without a car in most of the US and you can't find a cheap rental on the open market and government programs have wait lists that are months or years long.
If trying to stay housed costs half or more of your income and you must own a car to make life work at all in this country and that can cost another third of your income, then you have crumbs to cover groceries if you aren't part of the upper classes. Cutting people a small check doesn't fundamentally change that.
We have built a system where our expectation for "basic, decent housing" gets ever larger and more elaborate and we keep raising the table stakes for being able to get housing at all. Cutting people a check not only doesn't change that fact, it may just cause landlords to raise the rent.
People advocating for UBI are people who imagine that cutting poor people a check is an easy answer to fix their problems. They imagine that poor people are stupid, uneducated and lazy but don't have REAL problems -- like health issues -- and are not victims of a broken system where if you can't drive for some reason, well, it sucks to be you and no amount of money will make it stop really sucking because you will never really have independence.
Sure, if you are rich enough, you get to hire a cab or a chaffeur and that bites less than being poor and unable to drive in this country, but, no, you aren't allowed to just walk or bike to nearby amenities. We refuse to build that world, not because it can't be built but because it doesn't match our deeply seated ideas of the suburban good life as some kind of proper American Dream.
Our housing policies need to change and our approach to the built environment needs to change. It needs to be possible for people who currently have social security or a retirement check or a disability check to find a small place on the open market without getting on a government wait list and to make life work without owning a car.
UBI will not fix any of those things. In fact, UBI is likely to make us even less likely to address those issues, not more likely.
It makes it even more likely that rich people will go "Quit your bitching. You have your UBI. If you can't make your life work when we give you money for free, you loser you, this is not our problem. Stop bothering us while we are trying to enjoy our lifestyles of the rich and shameless lives."