Monday 3 July 2023

The dystopian truth about the Greens's so-called "poverty plan"


The Greens's so-called "poverty plan" has two legs: 1) the government stealing capital from rich investors; 2) so they can hand it out to middle-class "poor" voters as an "Income Guarantee" aka a Universal Basic Income (UBI).

Here's a data point from Norway on that first leg:

With a higher wealth tax hitting, Norway’s rich are abandoning the Land of the Midnight Sun for countries that allow them to keep more of what they earn, a warning to the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, as she drums up support for her Ultra-Millionaire’s Tax....[H]uman beings are dynamic and react to factors such as a higher cost of living.
    Norway is learning this lesson the hard way. It is one of the few nations in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development that taxes not just income but net wealth. Its Labor Party increased the bite that the government takes out of nest eggs. Now the golden geese are roosting elsewhere.
And here's the dystopian truth about that second leg, 
The basic idea of a UBI is that the state would make a regular guaranteed payment to every citizen, regardless of their means and employment status....
   It tells us a lot about how these [politicians and their cheerleaders] view work, individual autonomy and the potential of automation.
    UBI supporters’ ambivalence over whether people choose to work or not is especially telling.... they don’t call for improved working conditions, or for better jobs, but for people to be able to take or leave work.... It shows how work has lost its social significance....
    The calls for a UBI also reflect the paternalistic outlook of its supporters. They assume that people need to be looked after by the state. That rather than relying on our own individual and collective resourcefulness, we need a permanent handout instead. Far from freeing us, a UBI would shackle us permanently to the state....
    The postwar welfare state was originally intended to provide a valuable safety net for people unable to perform or find work. Today, it has become a web that entraps people. ... A guaranteed basic income for all would not eliminate dependence. It would extend it into a permanent way of living....
    A UBI ... is not a progressive or emancipatory proposal. It is the product of a deep cultural and political pessimism. It rests on the devaluation of work, the diminution of individual autonomy and an anxiety towards automation. The answer to our economic malaise lies not in universal state dependency. It lies in regaining a belief in progress and in the value and importance of work.

The Greens's so-called "poverty plan" would see many would-be investors depart, will steadily strip  remaining investors and wage earners of their capital, and will ensnare in dependency (and permanently impoverish) everyone else.

What's not to like?


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