Yes I was. I've been consistently concerned about the debt. I've never been a fan of the UBI idea though. That's basically what this is. $3000/adult in UBI over the past year.
Covid Relief and Stimulus package 3.0
- Thread starter UsualName
- Start date
It’s a very big bill - there’s no doubt. Consider this bill is Biden’s baby though. He campaigned on this and was pretty open with the parameters of the spending. I don’t think too many voters can say they didn’t expect Biden to get this size of a bill.
My thinking is Biden ran the recovery act in 2009 after the mess Bush left so he has a pretty understanding of what is needed to get the country back on track after the mess Trump left.
I think the real lesson here is that Republican Presidents absolutely are awful for America. The country can’t keep doing these massive rebuilds after them. It’s becoming too much.
This might surprise you, but I'm actually a big proponent of UBI.
You would just have to get rid of all welfare/food stamp and other assistance programs to do it.
Serious question -- why are you a big proponent of UBI? (More details).
Most UBI proposals for UBI payouts are to provide the income in addition to social / welfare benefits.
Our local city of Durham with the progressive city council is trying to get a UBI proposal into place. The first thing they found out is that paying people money will cause they to lose their qualification for welfare benefits. Many people would reject the UBI due to this.
I'm a big proponent IF other welfare and social programs are replaced with it because of the sheer cost, waste and fraud of all of those other programs. Replace it with one check to everyone who qualifies. Regardless of whether or not they work - so there's no "If I go to work, then I lose this benefit" crap.
Far more efficient. Do some research on how many people are required to manage these programs, the cost to manage them, and the amount of waste that runs through them. You'll be stunned. I was.
That will never happen...ever. You're asking politicians to give up control.
Oh, I'm sure it won't. But they'd still have control. It would just be a hell of a lot more efficient.
UBI fails to address both cost of living and physical/mental health disparities amongst people. I'd rather have it targeted towards the basics (healthcare/food/housing). My gut tells me that if we have a UBI and remove all services you'll find a lot more people with health issues out on the streets. Some people simply need more help than others, not because they're lazy, but they were dealt a bad hand in life. However, then I look at CA and wonder why it costs $450,000 per unit to build affordable housing so don't get me wrong, I don't think the government always spends wisely/efficiently.
So you'd prefer programs that - once you make above a certain salary - go away entirely? Because what folks do is they calculate all the benefits they get and then what they stand to lose if they take a job. They end up with a net loss. So they don't work.
Brilliant.
I think benefits could scale out as income increases. Hard lines are bad policy. However, I think we need to find a way to join the rest of the world and make sure everybody has healthcare. The point of food stamps/government housing instead of cash is so that people don't take the money to buy cigarettes, booze, and lotto tickets. I think the government should only help people enough to where the first couple of hierarchy of needs are met (food, air, water, shelter, healthcare, clothing, security, heat, etc). I want to get people less dependent on government, but that requires higher wages. The minimum wage debate is a complicated one. Based on the empirical evidence I think it's good to have one. The CBO estimates 1.4M more people will be unemployed, but 17M would get a pay increase. I think this is a good tradeoff. Even those most of those 1.4M will now require more government assistance, many of those 17M require substantial government assistance. Based on the empirical evidence from past raises, people laid off will find jobs in the long run.