• LilDumpy@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I’m ignorant, and maybe I shouldn’t ask this in a meme community, but wouldn’t a UBI become the new $0?

    Like all the corporations now know we get x-amount more so now prices are adjusted to take a portion of that across all sectors, and now I’m back to not being about to afford the same things as before? Idk I don’t have an econ degree.

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Not really. It’s not magical money that just appears.

      It’s redistributed money.

      Things may increase in price, not because of greed, but because supply and demand jumped dramatically. Think of all the people who now have money to buy random things like treats or toys.

      That’s not a bad thing! Suddenly, companies need to hire more people to increase supply, because people have resources to spend.

      Expensive stuff still exists. No matter what. But the bare minimum quality of life increases dramatically.

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      11 months ago

      No because taxation would be adjusted so the average person is no better off.

      It’s about raising the lowest earners to a minimum level that they’re able to live on, without making them jump through hoops or prove they are poor or prove they have been looking for work for 40 hours a week or some bullshit.

    • JPAKx4
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      11 months ago

      The way I think about it is by creating a scenario. We give 100% of people $1000 dollars (just for sake of argument). Some people use this for groceries, others for car payments, others for investments. Some people don’t even realize they got that money bc they were so rich. Some people can afford to pay for school supplies for kids. They key point is not everyone is using it for the same thing.

      The reason it sounds like it should become the new zero is bc it does happen in some situations. If the government gave everyone that rents $100, then landlords will raise rent by $100 a month later. The main difference between the two is how specific the scope of the money is.

      Yes, there would be economic changes (not necessarily downsides) such as higher inflation due to government spending, but also increased GDP which will stimulate the economy drastically. It will lead to higher unemployment, not bc people stop needing to work, but bc they can quit their second job or focus on taking care of kids full time (which that actually doesn’t change unemployment, but it would change the workforce numbers).

      I am not an economics major or anything, but I tried to give reasons to explain why we would expect these changes to happen in the real world.

    • maychance@infosec.pub
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      11 months ago

      Those corporations would still be competing with each other to be the one we spend that $ at though.