From a libertarian perspective, the most important difference between parents supporting their children and taxpayers supporting strangers via UBI is that the former is voluntary and the latter is not.
I saw a similar claim from samo about "bullshit jobs" being a ubi for the politically correct
I think there needs to be an absolutist take that the important definitional aspect of ubi is an unconditional payment(or mild condition like the corona money related to tax filling status) is that there is no money/resource wasted on enforcement.
Reasonably supporting your children is the way evolution works. All our physical and mental traits are the result of millennia of nurturing survivability. The pitfalls are subsidizing unproductive behaviours and fostering dependency.
That is a very surprising argument for Wilkinson to make. Maybe if I knew him better it wouldn't surprise me at all, but man... that's the kind of argument that makes me lose all confidence in someone's ability to analyze and consider a concept vs just throwing anything at the wall because the goal is the policy outcome, not understanding whether it is a good outcome or not.
A somewhat better analogy would be saying UBI is similar to court mandated alimony payments to divorcees of rich partners. Involuntary, not means tested, doesn't depend on behavior in the future. Still quite imperfect, as it isn't guaranteed as entitlement by the government, might not last forever (your ex might die then you are out of luck), can be cut off for various reasons. I suspect the results there are more in the "don't bother to build more human capital" territory than the college version, however.
From a libertarian perspective, the most important difference between parents supporting their children and taxpayers supporting strangers via UBI is that the former is voluntary and the latter is not.
I saw a similar claim from samo about "bullshit jobs" being a ubi for the politically correct
I think there needs to be an absolutist take that the important definitional aspect of ubi is an unconditional payment(or mild condition like the corona money related to tax filling status) is that there is no money/resource wasted on enforcement.
corona money related to tax filling status?
There was a 2 tier system for depends or marriage or something; it still was ubi compared to most things
Similarly people who’ve never even met immigrants have overwhelming reason to impose conditions on their entering the country
Reasonably supporting your children is the way evolution works. All our physical and mental traits are the result of millennia of nurturing survivability. The pitfalls are subsidizing unproductive behaviours and fostering dependency.
That is a very surprising argument for Wilkinson to make. Maybe if I knew him better it wouldn't surprise me at all, but man... that's the kind of argument that makes me lose all confidence in someone's ability to analyze and consider a concept vs just throwing anything at the wall because the goal is the policy outcome, not understanding whether it is a good outcome or not.
A somewhat better analogy would be saying UBI is similar to court mandated alimony payments to divorcees of rich partners. Involuntary, not means tested, doesn't depend on behavior in the future. Still quite imperfect, as it isn't guaranteed as entitlement by the government, might not last forever (your ex might die then you are out of luck), can be cut off for various reasons. I suspect the results there are more in the "don't bother to build more human capital" territory than the college version, however.