otherwiseguy

My pad mate was in for murder. Believe it or not he was a cool dude.

This is something I wish more people understood. I spent 30 days in solitary confinement in Camp Pendleton Base Brig (very short story version: was in Marine Corps boot camp, decided I didn't want to be). Being a 19 year old who was the furthest thing from a hardened criminal, I got out of my cell to push the juice cart. The guy in the cell next to me shot his CO and XO. He was nice. Almost everybody is nice to people they don't have any beef with. Sometimes otherwise nice people do really horrible things. There aren't just a lot of cartoon villains running around in prisons.

It's sooo much easier to cut a check to everyone than all of the headache involved with income reporting, fraud prevention, audits, etc. Still need that of course, but it's more "is this a real person" type checking than the much more difficult "is this person running a cash business, hiding income, etc." audits. Much of the savings associated with not paying the top 20-30% of earners ends up getting lost to administrative costs.

I also like the framing that a UBI is like getting a dividend on your and your ancestors' investment in the country. It seems like an easier sell than framing it as a welfare handout. This is money owed every American, etc. Get your due. None of this "You're poor, here's a handout" feeling. Give everyone the dignity of a return on their investment in the country.

Most UBI plans are replacing existing entitlements programs. Entitlement spending in the U.S. for 2017 were around $2.69 trillion.

I believe this place is Canadian? https://thecraftybartender.com/products/luxardo-maraschino-cherries

And apparently didn't realize that it wouldn't be a liquid at that point?