John M Grigg wrote:
>
> Lee corbin wrote:
> > Let us suppose that in the Constitution of "the first new nation",
> > i.e., the United States, there had been a provision for a minimal
> > guaranteed annual income. Isn't it clear that many people would
> > have lost the incentive to contribute? As it was, there were a
> > number of people who were too lazy, or too wasteful, or lacking
> > in other positive traits. But they didn't thrive and people didn't
> > look up to them or accept them, and as a result the traditions that
> > *did* survive were positive ones. I'm always surprised at the
> > "no fear" attitude of liberals who don't appear---under a lot of
> > cases---to understand how historically important *incentive*
> > has been in people's lives.
>
> I love the idea of a minimal guaranteed annual income. Largely because I tend to be a lazy person unless I simply must take action for survival! lol I do think Lee(and also Spike Jones in earlier posts) have a point that the need to eat, not be homele
ss, care for children, buy cool toys, travel, buy nice clothes and impress potential sex partners does a lot to get people out of bed and doing jobs that otherwise they might not care to do. And this goes beyond just surviving to having a good education
and career so real status can be attained and the perks which go with it.
John, you live in Alaska, so you can be excused for the creeping sense
of entitlement you may have here, since you already get some $2k each
year in oil profits for just being a citizen of Alaska, much as many of
the more stable socialist countries of europe likewise fund their
welfare states off of oil sales rather than actual economic
productivity.
>
> I think even in a society of guaranteed income, we would see most people working to better themselves. STATUS and the desire to care for a family is so important to us primates. And a guaranteed income would be SO nice for college students(right?).
I suppose that is why so many Alaskans work to become better drinkers...
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:39:50 MDT