RE: [Liberal Agenda] Universal Basic Income: A Follow Up
You're absolutely right, UBI is a form of socialism.
I completely disagree with your statement about the UK government having no money, however. I willingly pay my taxes, as does my partner, as do my parents and so on. We benefit, in this country at least, from certain government funded services, such as the National Health Service. Here we have a surprisingly different system to the US and other countries.
I have to say, it feels like you only skim read what I've written. To respond to;
The report states that the cost of this scheme would be in the region of £14.5bn a year, with over half of it being paid for by government savings.
with
The government has no money - only resources stolen from taxpayers. They produce nothing, only steal.
comes across, to me at least, as a little petty. What I'm stating there is that half of the cost of this proposed scheme would be covered by savings to the already existing welfare system. You've said nothing to counter that.
Socialism is not communism. You could make the argument that Capitalism doesn't work, I often do. No one political or economical model is perfect, which is why we need to adapt, and utilise the best parts of each system. Government funded organisations can help ensure healthy competition in the open market.
I will certainly go read your old post now while I have my morning coffee, but could I ask a favour? Could you use reason to make your points? Making statements with no evidence to back them up doesn't promote good discussion, only arguments for the sake of arguments.
Rather than edit my previous reply, I thought I'd add a bit more. I've been reading the post you linked, and I only really have a couple of things to add.
We don't have property tax here in the UK, so it wasn't a concept I was particularly familiar with. It's not a tax I agree with, and rather than address any societal inequalities, could instead destroy a country if values of property rose far higher than incomes. I can understand why you'd view such a tax as theft.
Socialism is not communism. In Marxist theory, socialism was viewed as a kind of middle ground between capitalism and communism. The bridge I guess you could call it. But I don't subscribe to any one political or economic theory, but instead that we need to work on is addressing societal inequalities without jeopardising our liberties. I believe that both here in the UK and over the pond, our political systems are broken and corrupt. There shouldn't be a ruling elite, career politicians or even the ability to manipulate the system, and no one person should get rich off the fruits of another mans labour, in my opinion.
Tax doesn't have to be bad. Do you completely disagree with all forms of tax? What about income tax? or Value-Added Tax (VAT)? Do you disagree with the concept of wealth redistribution completely? or what if we did something totally crazy, like devised a completely new way of being, no money so no tax, no property rights so no rent. The problem there is us, people. We're inherently selfish, self-centered pieces of shit really. As a species we can do great things, but tend not to. We each have our own ways of thinking, desires and dreams and how we see our lives should be. We can't force anyone into thinking a particular way, we are the result of the lives we've had, and sometimes we just struggle to see things from other people's perspectives. This planet is becoming increasingly small to us, and we've all gotta share it. We've all pretty much agreed to do what consensus says, even if it's not what we agree with in our hearts. Let's just keep tweaking at the system, until we get there. Some taxes are wrong, or don't work, but I don't think they're inherently theft, but I do encourage you to change my mind.
Apologies, that became a bit rambly.