Donald Trump Basic Income Policy vs. Andrew Yang Freedom Dividend [not all UBI's are created equal]

As it stands now it looks like with the support of Donald Trump, the United States government will give every American adult $1,200.

Now the KEY difference between the coronavirus basic income and Andrew Yang’s “Freedom Dividend” is that the former is an emergency temporary measure in response to a pandemic whereas the latter would be a permanent recurring amount in response to automation.

(donald trump basic income policy, donald trump on basic income for americans, donald trump supports basic income, what does donald trump think of basic income, does donald trump support basic income)

In other words, Yang’s proposal would be much more expensive and would be to address an entirely different problem.

Now I understand the price-tag doesn’t really matter much to the average person because I mean after a certain amount it all sounds the same, like whether it be 10 billion, 50 billion, 300 billion, 3 trillion, 50 trillion does any of those numbers elicit any emotional response in you? Probably not.

But if I said I’ll send you $1,000 a month for life that’ll probably get your blood pumpin’, am I right? But why stop there!? Let’s do 2K or 5K a month… I mean is there any amount where you’d say, “Hold up Big Daddy, that’s waaaay too much for me!"

Now I’ve been writing about UBI since 2014 and one of the things I hope people really consider is that not all UBI proposals are created equal.

You see when done right, UBI can lift millions of people out of poverty and strengthen the middle class, but when done wrong UBI could make the dollar cheaper than a piece of toilet paper.

So an example of UBI done right, in my opinion, is Social Security.

As long as you worked a little bit in your life then you will qualify for Social Security by the time you are 62 years old. Current Social Security recipients contributions have already been spent on the previous generation’s retirement, so no as some would argue, social security recipients aren’t living off of their own contributions, but instead are living off of a direct transfer of wealth from the young. This year is also the first year since 1982 that social security will spend more than it takes in. Overtime expect to see with our aging population and increased lifespans that more and more social security recipients will live well-past their total contribution into the system, which I think is a good thing. Live long and prosper!

(donald trump basic income policy, donald trump on basic income for americans, donald trump supports basic income, what does donald trump think of basic income, does donald trump support basic income)

In addition, as part of the coronavirus bill, our government will also send an additional $200 to social security recipients. In my opinion, this is UBI. The core difference between UBI and SS is that under most UBI proposals you start getting money at 18 years old.

This is an EXTREMELY important difference though because I believe 18 years old is too young, in part, because it’s too universal.

You see my central fear with UBI, as I alluded to before, is that we will become addicted to the free money like heroine addicts.

As soon as that check comes in we’ll demand more and more.

If we start getting a monthly UBI during the duration of this pandemic then there will be a lot of political pressure to keep it going even after the pandemic officially ends because, how can we stop sending money, people will argue, when we are still feeling the pandemic's economic effects.

With that said, I prefer to see a UBI sent out to all Americans than to see big government bail out big banks and big industry. I don’t like government handouts, but if it’s going to happen, then the last people who should get are the 1%.

Many of these banks and industries overextend themselves during good times, for every dollar in you can imagine them spending 3 dollars, which then fuels inequality because you and I can’t borrow 2 dollars at such favorable interest rates as they receive, but then as fast they grow is as fast as they can collapse, which means during an economic downturn they quickly turn to the American taxpayer to bail them out of their debts because they say it’d be bad for us if they went out of business, After all, they say, we need banks, airplanes, cars, etc!

(donald trump basic income policy, donald trump on basic income for americans, donald trump supports basic income, what does donald trump think of basic income, does donald trump support basic income)

Yes we do, but it’s not like those factories will go up in flames. Some will be closed down, but most of them will be sold off to some new startup or smaller B company to take up the lead and learn from their predecessor by not being so reckless in their spending.

But if we keep bailing them out we’ll keep signaling to these industries and the stock market that reckless spending gets rewarded handsomely in good times and protected in bad times.