If we can't make UBI fly, then at the very least we should fund free public health care and daycare. That alone would help create a sustainable financial cushion.
We need to make UBI work. US manufacturing output, in constant dollars, has risen steadily. US manufacturing employment has fallen. Ditto resource extraction. Phone customer service is already taking that hit. We will reach a point where there are more people than labor to be done.
Unfortunately the country seems bound to head in the opposite direction. A GOP victory in Nov means SSI, and Medicare are doomed, let alone any big new entitlement programs to help people.
350k in a 7% return mutual trust fund would produce 24.5k a year In dividends.
With 3.6k for tax, 14k returned to principal to account for inflation, you'd be left with about 6.8k or 500 a month of UBI (increasing yearly)
We could assign people a trust from birth that gets reassigned on death
1/2
Daycare particularly would be huge.
And there really needs to be some kind of public housing that's actually available and that includes some spaces for people who can't commit to strict sobriety standards.
instead of a UBI, I prefer decommodifying certain sectors of the economy. the important ones are housing, food, healthcare, and childcare, in that order. it would be partial decommodification in the short run but eventually full decommodification. it'd be tough but not impossible.
My long, long, long stated opinion: if they were truly pro-life, they'd want more Planned Parenthoods than Starbucks, fully-funded to provide all care *free*, and would also fund maternity *and* paternity leave, as well as free daycare.
