
Mark Zuckerberg: Basic income is a bipartisan idea - doener
https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10103857892105091
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JSONwebtoken
Sure. If I had a billion in the bank, I'd be 100% for bribing the common folk
with their own tax revenues. As a rich person, the only thing preferable to no
taxes is exorbitantly high taxes so no-one else can get rich and my relative
purchasing power remains high. Brilliant plan.

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condescendence
A guy worth ~$62 Billion talking basic income; someone who's looking to lead
the world in automation alongside Google and Amazon. Not to get all nutty, but
it seems strange that billionaires are the ones to lead the conversation in
basic income.

Sure they know more than anyone that automation is coming, but exactly how
soon and far stretching?

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_nalply
They are just afraid.

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torstenvl
I'm really surprised and disappointed by some of the responses in this thread.
It boggles my mind that some people can consider themselves "hackers" and/or
follow tech news, but not understand that automation is going to require UBI
for most of humanity to have any sort of quality of life. UBI is and should be
a bipartisan idea. It may even be necessary for the survival of our Republic,
if not or species.

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korzun
Let's fix Social Security first; worry about UBI later.

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condescendence
Yeah this is the thing I always come back to. UBI is without question needed
in a highly autonomous society, but we fail to have proper flow on our already
existing systems like Social Security.

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sabujp
or health care (at least in the US)

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recondite
I'm all for some implementation of UBI, or more broadly, less inequality in
society, but the numbers just don't add up to support it (yet).

Even if you took all of the US Federal transfer programs (Social Security,
Medicare, etc...) AND taxed the top 1% at a 90+% rate, you'd still fall short
of the amount needed to distribute a basic income to reach the minimum poverty
level for the masses.

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nicolashahn
Does it need to reach that level for it to be worth doing?

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AstralStorm
Yes, otherwise targeted programs are cheaper and can be comparatively
effective if administered well.

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towndrunk
To get your free money you just need to join facebook. Make at least 3 posts a
day to let everyone know how great the free money is... this is such a great
idea!

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timwaagh
You know who is going to kindly donate the money required for this grand
bipartisan plan? Thats right mr. Z. This is the best example of 'put your
money where your mouth is'.

Secondarily and importantly Alaska may be conservative but its so far north
and so cold that it requires an alternative approach, which is exactly what is
going on here. Look at any cold place and you will see initiatives aimed at
keeping people from freezing to death. Scandinavia, russia, Canada are similar
on this matter. Ideology gets pushed aside when your neighbour cannot keep
warm through winter. In the end humans are social animals.

Paying dividends to everyone out of a natural resources fund is of course not
the usual 'small government' approach. Not at all, because it is essentially a
state owned enterprise in all but name. The usual 'small government' approach
would be privatisation: to simply sell the rights to oil to the highest
bidder.

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nisa
I'm just leaving this here:
[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/28/silico...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/28/silicon-
valley-basic-income)

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mbertschler
It starts looking like Mark is taking politics seriously. I actually wonder if
someone from the valley or the tech world in general could do something
radically different to improve peoples lives more than someone who is a
traditional politician.

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MaysonL
Guaranteed employment is probably a better idea.

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kapauldo
Dispatched from the bubble.

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newtem0
People talk about whether or not it can be afforded and then point out the
dollar coat of living, taxes and so on. Money is not a real thing, its a
construct. Its so complicated that nobody here is going to be able to prove we
couldnt afford ubi. But rhat doesnt even matter since money is only a
framework we use for our markets and economies. Instead of fussing with money
figures, which will never do anything besides confuse people, we can look at
concrete things instead. The physical and chemical reality of this world. It
is undeniable that because of automation, a complete restructuring of our
society will be needed. The only limits in such a reorganization are those of
the physical world, not those of our current paradigm. So, how much energy is
there to go around? How much food and how many materials? What is the maximum
amount of any of those things that we might collectively have? What are the
limits of physics for how much energy we can harvest from the sun? That is
where the conversation needs to begin. And i think we will all find that even
with todays technology there is plenty of everythong to go around.

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petra
>> even with todays technology there is plenty of everything to go around.

That was probably the case 100 years ago.

But UBI is an economic/political question.

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korzun
A basic income would be perfect for Facebook. The people will be able to sit
and consume everything social media while rotting away to obscurity.

