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abdoolio13 karma

Vigur doesn't really scream "Video" though.

abdoolio9 karma

Don't you think that the private sector would respond to the increased demand for everything? If a portion of the population is now given $X, they're going to be spending more on products, which will increase demand, and therefore price. So once we reach a new equilibrium point, wouldn't we be in the exact same boat that we're in now? It would become a constant cycle of inflation caused by UBI, then increasing UBI to meet the new value level.

abdoolio7 karma

Let's use rent as our example. If everyone makes more money, they have a higher spending budget. If a cheap place goes for however much per month, but now everyone in a lower income bracket has had their budget increased by some amount, they can afford higher rent prices, and as such landlords will increase their prices. The same applies to all goods.

Realistically, given enough time, whatever the value of the UBI is will just become the new zero, and will have to start the cycle over again.

abdoolio6 karma

Shouldn't you be occupying something?

abdoolio5 karma

As a Canadian, I can certainly speak to the ups and downs of public healthcare. While I love our dirt cheap basic coverage (or free in some provinces), I certainly wouldn't call our system efficient. However, that's a conversation for another day.

The same argument still applies to issuing permits. If we use petroleum as our example, you're simply restricting supply artificially, causing a rise in price for the consumer. Would this reduce usage? No, not really. Because people don't run their vehicles unless they have somewhere to be, and companies don't use their machinery unless they are making something. Petroleum isn't a "want" so much as a "need" which means that demand isn't going to drop significantly unless some kind of alternative energy source comes along. Even then, you have to remember that there are millions of cars in North America alone, and virtually all of them run on gasoline. Even if electric cars came out today with a reasonable battery life, most people can't or won't ditch their old internal combustion engine vehicles; not to mention that a lot of places still burn coal for electricity, which simply shifts the externalities of transportation to someone else, rather than eliminating them.

So now we have a situation where the market supply for petroleum is restricted, the demand has gone done marginally if at all, and so prices for gas, and therefore all industries (from usage in manufacturing and transport), have increased. How on earth would these dividend payments be able to cover that kind of price increase? You've simply increased the price across the board, and forced inflation. Not to mention, as an oil company, wouldn't it just be cheaper to import oil from elsewhere, rather than paying ridiculous taxes domestically, therefore decreasing the number of employed people and tax paying corporations?