Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

A

A

A

A

A

A

A

A

[Loud Whispers]

Das right mang, sex positivity is jyggy and not shyggydyggy

[martinuzz]

Who knows, perhaps his wife even gets off on watching him do cheap hookers. Voyeurism isn't restricted to males. Implying that would be sexist, and anti-feminist.

[Helgoland]

Or maybe they just don't believe in strict monogamy - a priori there's nothing wrong with visiting a cheap hooker as long as your wife knows about it

[mainiac]

Pre-determined handouts are harder to do than you think as well. Try and come up with a set of rations that will do for everyone in an entire country. You obviously want something that doesn't spoil, so any fresh food is a no-no. But what if people don't want what you're handing out. I've had charity food before. About 70% of the weight is food you will never eat.

Also, what about clothes? It's not like you can hand out "units of clothes" in any reasonable way that everyone will want.

It would be pretty easy to figure out a comprehensive system.  Pick a number of healthy items that are sold at grocery stores.  A certain number of those items are free each week for everyone.  Families with kids get a multiple.  Because they are free for everyone the black markets for rations would be very small (although not nonexistant).  As long as the ration is more then people eat in a week you dont need to worry about hording.  Because healthy foods are cheap and the infrastructure is minimal the program wouldn't cost too much.  The primary difficulties would be avoiding having food companies game the system to get more expensive foods included and avoiding backlash against free lunch welfare queens.

[Zangi]

Wouldn't it be much simpler(it'll still be a massive logistical nightmare, but a tiny bit less in certain ways) to just give each and every citizen of every class a welfare check of (insert amount here) and let them have at it as they please? 
Everyone gets that hand-out.  No exceptions.  No variations.  Less need to spend another few billion on overhead over fraud and being a nanny/big brother.
It'll mean nothing to the rich.  The middle class will end up spending it or putting it into savings and the poor will have their avoid-dying-like-a-homeless-dog net, plus a somewhat better chance of going up a class.

Of course, reckon there is all sorts of implications to the economy...  both positive and negative.

EDIT: Though, there is cost of living to consider, but I want to say screw that noise.  Throw in an incentive/help package for relocation to any area with lower cost of living.   Which is probably not viable in such numbers.

[Frumple]

... that's what a basic income is, yes.

[mainiac]

Wouldn't it be much simpler(it'll still be a massive logistical nightmare, but a tiny bit less in certain ways) to just give each and every citizen of every class a welfare check of (insert amount here) and let them have at it as they please?

UBI is simpler but grocery subsidies do have some benefits that UBI dont have.

[Sheb]

I must say, from a health perspective, free healthy food seems amazing. As a cash-strapped student, I'd be eating nothing but healthy stuff then. 

[aenri]

I must say, from a health perspective, free healthy food seems amazing. As a cash-strapped student, I'd be eating nothing but healthy stuff then. 

shit, what about my kielbasa and sausages? (and bacon, but bacon is healthy!)

[Zangi]

(and bacon, but bacon is healthy!)

Emphasis on moderation.  But hey, its your choice.  >.>

[reality.auditor]

This alll waffing about Basic Income (BI) for being alive is cute and all, but I wonder about one thing: from where you want to get money for that? Without answering that question it all is just intellectual masturbation.

Everyone gets that hand-out.

Anyone means very big incentive to spawn children. Even if by some insane miracle your country could afford BI now, it surely as hell will not be able to maintain BI after few decades of endless multiplying.

[Antsan]

We've got problems with how little children we have (or have I imagined all this lamentation about how little offspring we have?), so incentive for more children should be a good thing, right?

The money you get by getting rid of all kinds of special treatments (like social welfare, pension and stuff like that). This frees up lots of money which now is spent on administration and bookkeeping.

endless multiplying.

Ever heard about how caring for children is plenty stressful, no matter how much money you have? In reality money isn't a replacement for work and children also are very expensive. In terms of pay/work it's much more efficient to do something else instead of raising children.

[Helgoland]

The money you get by getting rid of all kinds of special treatments (like social welfare, pension and stuff like that). This frees up lots of money which now is spent on administration and bookkeeping.

Plus you can just raise taxes on those who don't really need BI, so they won't feel a difference at all. So yeah, money's not  the problem.

[Erkki]

I had a brief discussion with someone on the election results yesterday. Unsurprisingly Mr. Hakkarainen was brought up(that uneducated, drunk, chauvinist racist bum from True Finns), and I jokingly said hes probably considered qualified for a minister's seat. One agreed: Hakkarainen could for example get become the minister for Land and Forest Economies. He was dead serious, and explained me multiple times how someone who has lived off forest business is more qualified than anyone who has ever held the same position; he would have "seen trees out of textbooks too". I voiced my actual opinion on him and also called him a clown, only to get attacked by everyone with insults on what were guessed to be my values and parties voted and provocation.

Idiots like me together with gays and women should be prevented from being able to vote. I would also probably sell the entire nation to black people and Arabs. We are all commie hippies and nothing good ever came from the likes of me.

And I only recently considered those very people reasonable. Incredible.

[Antsan]

That's some heavy stuff.