Debt Rattle June 19 2018

“Trump is going to have to find some way to back down and let China save face” Quite probably he will, because that’s how negotiations go. However, we can stop buying their TVs and they can stop buying our food and see who cracks first.

Sell Parliament? I thought they were already for sale.

We already tried UBI in a variety of nations, it was called the Soviet system. Although it did protect a small minority of people at the bottom, it’s widely regarded as a failure to everybody, including the wealthy, but particularly the lower, middle, and professional class. It reinforced the oligarchy, and engineered a neofeudal society of lords (Party members) and peasants. The lower classes did not have agency, because without capital, they cannot pursue their dreams and projects. To be a painter, you need paints, easels, travel, etc. To be in inventor, you need a shop, possibly the ability to get a million or more in venture capital to execute modern ideas. UBI insures you will be too low to achieve that because the entire class from Elon Musk down will be too impoverished to support it.

Besides, since Musk, Bezos, and Gates are going to own 99% of the capital, is it possible they might then own 99% of the political system, and condition their UBI or your freedom on whether you cause trouble for them? This is the most oppressive, backward, feudal system imaginable…which is exactly what we saw when it was enacted in the Soviet.

“…Money will be in your chips. And so, instead of having cash, any time you have money in your chip, they can take out whatever they want to take out whenever they want to. If they say “you owe us this much money in taxes,” they just deduct it out of your chip, digitally. And if you’re like me or you, and you’re protesting what they’re doing, they can just turn off your chip. And you have nothing. You can’t buy food. You can’t do anything. It’s total control of the people.” –Aaron Russo

Ah! The finest of UBI! So loving, so tolerant, so generous. Beware Geeks bearing gifts.

Cash will not end; the blackmarket cannot exist without it.
And, since the black market is tied to the economy, it’s protected…
Traceable electronic transactions will not be allowed in the blackmarket…

@V.Arnold
I read Modernity and the Sickness of the Soul by David Nasr, and I agree with it, and I agree with your assessment, which is the self-assessment it contains: “I don’t know; I’m just a seeker”. I find that the search must be physical to some significant degree, growing vegetables with hands in the soil (and sweating, and hurting and being frustrated, etc), engaging other humans, and engaging in real projects of co-creation (gardening works, again). Meditation alone and together is not something we are sold, but it’s a normal function. Riding a bike places is pretty adaptive in more ways than apparent until you do it for a year or two.

Like you Dr. D I have my doubts about the worth of an UBI. I like the idea but it could be open to such abuse and exploitation. Not so much by the recipients but by employers who could then pay lower and lower wages.