<story><title>Coronavirus Is Making Universal Basic Income Look Better</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-15/coronavirus-is-making-universal-basic-income-look-better</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>supernova87a</author><text>This opinion is pretty flawed.  When will aggregations of individuals making $24k per year get together and build a hydroelectric dam or nuclear power plant, or assemble themselves to form a genomics research institute or space agency?&lt;p&gt;There are things that individuals, left to their own preferences and entrepreneurial habits, will never create.</text></item><item><author>Mengkudulangsat</author><text>Maybe we shouldn&amp;#x27;t be presupposing that governments are better at resource allocation than their citizens. People will still work with UBI, but they are much better positioned to choose the kind of work they personally do best.</text></item><item><author>keiferski</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve still never come across a decent answer to this question, so maybe someone can help: why is Basic Income (in the US) preferable to a Great Depression-style Works Progress Administration?&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency, employing millions of job-seekers (mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States, while developing infrastructure to support the current and future society.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Above all, the WPA hired workers and craftsmen who were mainly employed in building streets. Thus, under the leadership of the WPA, more than 1 million km of streets and over 10,000 bridges were built, in addition to many airports and much housing.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Much of the infrastructure in the US is crumbling and needs to be replaced or fixed in the coming decades. Wouldn&amp;#x27;t society benefit more from training and hiring people to clean streets, rebuild infrastructure, beautify urban areas, etc. than simply sending everyone a check?&lt;p&gt;I know that Basic Income isn&amp;#x27;t simply to replace jobs lost to automation, but I don&amp;#x27;t see how &lt;i&gt;paying people to improve aspects of civilization&lt;/i&gt; is not obviously better than &lt;i&gt;paying people with no expectations.&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Broken_Hippo</author><text>Having UBI won&amp;#x27;t make jobs go away, though. It won&amp;#x27;t make government infrastructure projects go away. I really don&amp;#x27;t understand folks think that one thing completely decimates the other.&lt;p&gt;It will mean that people won&amp;#x27;t be wage slaves if they don&amp;#x27;t want to, and can quit a shitty job or a shitty manager. It means that folks can miss work if the are sick. Or not go broke while getting education, both formal and informal. Folks might not work at a job they hate just to get food on the table and be slightly-over-broke. People can demand vacation time. But it&amp;#x27;ll still be worth it to go to work to have more money than UBI gives, even if some folks don&amp;#x27;t participate.</text></comment>
<story><title>Coronavirus Is Making Universal Basic Income Look Better</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-15/coronavirus-is-making-universal-basic-income-look-better</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>supernova87a</author><text>This opinion is pretty flawed.  When will aggregations of individuals making $24k per year get together and build a hydroelectric dam or nuclear power plant, or assemble themselves to form a genomics research institute or space agency?&lt;p&gt;There are things that individuals, left to their own preferences and entrepreneurial habits, will never create.</text></item><item><author>Mengkudulangsat</author><text>Maybe we shouldn&amp;#x27;t be presupposing that governments are better at resource allocation than their citizens. People will still work with UBI, but they are much better positioned to choose the kind of work they personally do best.</text></item><item><author>keiferski</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve still never come across a decent answer to this question, so maybe someone can help: why is Basic Income (in the US) preferable to a Great Depression-style Works Progress Administration?&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency, employing millions of job-seekers (mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States, while developing infrastructure to support the current and future society.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Above all, the WPA hired workers and craftsmen who were mainly employed in building streets. Thus, under the leadership of the WPA, more than 1 million km of streets and over 10,000 bridges were built, in addition to many airports and much housing.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Much of the infrastructure in the US is crumbling and needs to be replaced or fixed in the coming decades. Wouldn&amp;#x27;t society benefit more from training and hiring people to clean streets, rebuild infrastructure, beautify urban areas, etc. than simply sending everyone a check?&lt;p&gt;I know that Basic Income isn&amp;#x27;t simply to replace jobs lost to automation, but I don&amp;#x27;t see how &lt;i&gt;paying people to improve aspects of civilization&lt;/i&gt; is not obviously better than &lt;i&gt;paying people with no expectations.&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>friendlybus</author><text>Weird opinion to see on HN. People who forsee and can execute on building a nuclear power startup can get outside investment. Fusion research is moving to the small and cheap entrepreneurial projects.&lt;p&gt;You prefer to have nuclear physicists digging ditches like parent poster..?</text></comment>