This post is a response to the question [“How realistic do you this idea of Universal Basic Income is in today's United States government?"] (https://www.proofofbrain.blog/hive-101093/@frijole/week-12-questions-universal-basic-income) posted by @frijole
I would like to say that this task could be achieved in today's society however, the way that we look at poverty and people in low-income circumstances, I do not believe that it is very likely that it will occur. If it were to occur there would have to be a measure of overall current income where the lower-income class would get a higher stipend than the upper class. This would however cause commotion with the rich becoming upset about having to "pay" for the poor and the upper and middle class feeling less obligated to work. The way that the government handles money today is proof of how realistic it would be. The government can't find the money to help the cities rebuild broken down parts of their communities let alone help out an entire population rebuild financial stability. There would be a decrease in workflow due to the fact that people could work less and get more. An example of this would be the COVID checks that people were receiving when COIVD first hit and affected the economy strongly. People were quitting their jobs because they could make more off of the COVID checks than what they were getting paid at their jobs. Money is the human's incentive for everything give it out for free and the people will naturally just work less. Now am I saying that all people would quit their jobs and just try to live off of the checks? No, of course not but I believe that this fear is what would drive the government away from Universal Basic Income.
Universal Basic Income (UBI) is code word for tyranny. Implementing it would require a complete re-engineering the economy. Income is meaningless unless the income is sufficient to purchase the necessities of life. Prices are set by supply and demand. Unless there were enough productive people actually doing and making things prices would rise rendering the basic income insufficient.
The way human nature works , people will only produce as long as they see a return. IF not enough things are made the result of UBI would be to plunge most of the population into poverty because the things they need would be in short supply.
UBI is also a threat to freedom, political power is built upon economic power. in a world of UBI most of the population would be totally dependent on the state who would control the payments. Further the state could impose any conditions it wanted in order for the the payments to be made. Political leanings, number of children, vaccination status could all be conditions of being fed and housed.
It would be a grave error to treat UBI like some kind of benevolent welfare programme. It would amount to a complete state takeover of the economy as the state could not only control how much was paid out, even where and with whom the money is spent.