Presidential Candidates on UBI

Good news, people, Fox “news” is reporting our country is so great you can work until you drop dead. Isn’t that wonderful? It didn’t report what kind of job you’ll be slaving away at, but you won’t be able to retire so don’t quit your job. Fox did not address stagnate wages, escalating housing and basic needs costs, full-time jobs being replaced by gig jobs and inequality created by the pay gap between CEOs and the workers. In the 1950s and until 1965, this gap was 20 to 1. In the 1970s through 2014, the gap began to widen and then in a steroid induced greed, CEO compensation increased 997 percent compared to the 10.9 percent growth in a typical worker’s compensation. Today, the disparity stands at 354 to 1. This doesn’t factor in the disparity between minimum and median wage workers, which is higher in the U.S. than any other industrialized country. On average, a typical median wage worker earns $905 a week versus a minimum wage worker earning $209. There are numerous posts on this site about universal basic income (UBI) or freedom dividends or baby bond or permanent fund or whatever one calls it. The reason why is that it is an important rescue measure for the 99 percent of us and the capitalist system. So important, that heads of major corporations, especially those who work in tech industries, are supporting the implementation of a UBI. In the next one to two decades, these CEOs predict 36 million workers’ jobs will be impacted negatively by automation, with at least 70 percent of these workers being replaced completely. ‘UBI is our only hope to deal with a coming labor market unlike any in human history and that it represents our best hope to revitalize American civil society,’ says Charles Murray, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, in a 2016 Wall Street Journal essay. It’s important that we recognize that those who say a UBI will discourage people from working are wrong. For years, Alaska has given a yearly dividend from its oil production, and there is no evidence the free money makes people lazy, in fact the extra money to explore owning their own business or purchase items they can’t afford now. Some of our presidential candidates have weighed in on the UBI issue. Candidate Andrew Yang supports implementing a UBI of $1,000 to everyone older than 18 years of age. Candidate Joe Biden spoke against a UBI in 2017 in a blog at the University of Delaware’s School of Public Policy and Administration. He believes in retraining workers and two free years of community college, instead. Candidate Elizabeth Warren said there were other things we should do before we go to a UBI, like universal child care and education, taxing the wealthy and student loan forgiveness. Candidate Kamala Harris is proposing the Lift the Middle Class Act meant to offset the cost-of-living increases. If approved, the Act would give a refundable tax credit of up to $500 a month or $6,000 a year to families earning less than $100,000 annually. Single filers who earn below $50,000 yearly could get up to $3,000 a year. Candidate Bernie Sanders said he has something different to offer than a UBI. He prefers to follow in the footsteps of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and tackle the crumbling infrastructure thereby creating millions of jobs in our energy system, transportation system, healthcare and renewable energy, among others. Candidate Pete Buttigieg has said he’d tie a UBI to work and broaden the definition of work. Candidate Beto O’Rourke initially said he did not support a UBI, but it’s now worth having a conversation about as automation takes more jobs. Candidate Cory Booker advocates providing every American child from birth an “American Opportunity Account” managed by the Treasury Department with a 3 percent annual return and once the child reaches age 18, they can access the money but it could be spent only on education or home ownership. “When a candidate tells you about all the things that are not possible, about how political calculations come first, they’re telling you something very important; they are telling you that they will not fight for you,” Elizabeth Warren said. Please heed her warning and check out the voting records of those running for president. This is a list of links to check out a politician’s Buttigieg’s stanchion a UBI: https://www.reddit.com/r/BasicIncome/comments/b0qpfi/pete_buttigieg_interviewed_about_ubi/ https://votesmart.org https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes https://www.headcount.org/issues-and-candidates/ https://classroom.synonym.com/how-to-check-a-politicians-voting-record-12077898.html