In the video about the libertarian, conservative, progressive, communist case for a universal basic dividend, I found your argument remarkably interesting. Overall, it is a mix of all the good that we have now outside of the government as well as other good factors that could be incorporated to make the whole system much better. I like how your form of common ownership would take power from the government yet do little to nothing to social classes and stay away from total socialism which uses the government to seek control over private ownership. Keeping private ownership and private means of production is one of the best things about capitalism and your universal basic income theory of the government that mixes bits of socialism while keeping mostly capitalism sounds like something I would be on board for.
Vernon Howard’s quote, “our freedom can be measured by the number of things we can walk away from” really stuck out to me and the way that your idea of government provides a way out for people who are stuck in situations that they may not otherwise be able to get out of is very impressive. There are many people who could be doing great things in the world and making a difference, however they were never given a chance. Just that one shot could change someone’s life and even something like changing a student’s education from an underperforming school to a school with more resources capable of teaching the student is huge. Not only would this solve the problem of poor education, but it would also help with areas with poor public housing and high crime.
In the next section of your lecture, you discussed the percentage of GPD spent by the US government over the past couple centuries. One thing I disagree with in this area is how much the federal government should spend. You said 9% and I think that realistically that is a little low in the current state of the economy. As shown in the graph, the GDP of defense in the US grew rapidly after WWII and it is important for the government to be able to spend that money on the army and defense for our country. I do think that the government still needs a cap for GDP, but I believe it should be higher and possibly around a 12% area.
When it comes to the constitutional convention idea with 3-5 red and blue states to come together as opposed to two thirds of the states coming together and then the amendment being sent to the state legislatures to ratify it, I can see it being both good and bad. I feel like the way things are now, there are many checks and balances in place to make sure that amendments and laws passed through many people and departments. In your idea, while it can strip power from the federal government as well as allow the states to come together and “completely rewrite the constitution if they so choose,” I’m not sure how it would turn out. I actually do like the idea of the states having more power than they have now in terms of being able to hold constitutional conventions and change things as they please, I feel like it is important for the nation as a whole to come to a final decision.
While there are several arguments against universal basic income, I think most of them can be worked around with some tweaks. One of the more disappointing downsides is the disincentive to work for me. Although it may not truly be disincentive work, I think that any and all incentive to work is key to keep people working hard and getting things done. Another is that politicians may try to increase it to unsustainable levels but like you said, if you promote it to a constitutional level, that will solve that issue. However, if it is not promoted to a constitutional level, there would be a major problem. Overall, most of the issues can be solved with time and work.
Overall, I agree with almost the entire argument for universal basic income. There are so many great things about this idea of the government and if it could be placed at a constitutional level, it could be great for the nation. There are definitely some kinks to work out, possibly with numbers and things I may not agree with such as the GPD percent limit, but with a few slight changes to that I would not mind this style of government at all.
