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The Almighty Buck News

Jack Dorsey Is Giving Andrew Yang $5 Million To Build the Case for Universal Basic Income (thehill.com) 271

Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Twitter and mobile-payments firm Square, said today he is giving $5 million to Humanity Forward, a group launched by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang to build the case for a universal basic income. A report adds: The donation is part of Dorsey's Start Small LLC, a $1 billion foundation he launched last month to support global COVID-19 relief efforts. "Not only will Jack's donation directly impact tens of thousands of people in need during the current economic downturn, it will help Humanity Forward and our movement continue to make a case for Universal Basic Income (UBI) in the United States," Yang said in a statement. "We know UBI for every American is possible, and this $5 million from Start Small is going to help demonstrate what is possible for families across the country."
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Jack Dorsey Is Giving Andrew Yang $5 Million To Build the Case for Universal Basic Income

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  • by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Thursday May 21, 2020 @01:16PM (#60087376) Journal
    ..but until just now I didn't know how high the stupid went: all the way to the top, apparently.
    • DIAF, Miss Mash. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21, 2020 @01:20PM (#60087390)
      Go back to India, you retarded chimpanzee. There is a REASON that communism failed in the 20th century and why it wiped out tens of millions of humans.

      You sicken me and should be deported, Ms. Mash.
      • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21, 2020 @01:31PM (#60087440)
        YEP, she comes here like half the foreigners these days with the "gimme gimme gimme" attitude and pushes for bread and circus which destroys the productive class and turns a civilized society into a third world waste pile that you don't want to be down wind of. Immigrants should contribute to society. They shall not arrive to leech and break it down.
      • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        We never had communism. In Russia they had Stalinism and in China Maoism, the political branding was just political branding, they were both monarchist style governments, with all the power at the top and setting up to passed along on a family succession. In reality they were monarchist police states, calling themselves communist as branding. China still calls itself communist, when it reality it is entirely Fascist, with alignment of government and corporations to be one in the same (just a change in direc

    • by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Thursday May 21, 2020 @01:22PM (#60087400)
      What does this have to do with Twitter since it’s Dorsey’s own money? Whether you consider this a wise or foolish use of his money I think it’s fair to agree that he’s at least using his own money to try something as opposed to all of the people who either want to spend everyone else’s money on it or have convinced themselves that the idea couldn’t possibly work. Maybe this ultimately fails, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to be learned as a result of the attempt.
      • Brendan Eich used (far far less) of his own money as well. See how well it worked out for him.
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Soooo, how do _you_ propose to get money to people when the "jobs" mechanism is failing?

      Because if enough people do not have money to spend, first the economy crashes and then society disintegrates. That is probably not something you want, I take it?

  • Not the time (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Thursday May 21, 2020 @01:19PM (#60087386)

    Pandemic relief aside, I don't see how we talk about UBI while health care is still such a mess. Having a true universal system (Not necessarily M4A) like the rest of the first world would do a lot more for the average American and the economy than a $1000 or so a month. It's good that UBI is being brought more into the public eye more but there's a reason health care is a top election concern for the last 30 years and we are still trying to figure it out.

    • When this subject of 'UBI' first came up several years ago, what I said about it, apart from "that'll never work!", is that they should try having free Universal Health Care for all U.S. citizens first, and see if they can make that work. Seriously, I figure that would be a better test case than just writing people checks every month; if you can't make free national healthcare work financially, then how the hell do you expect to make writing people checks every month forever to work? I also figured if they
    • Pandemic relief aside, I don't see how we talk about UBI while health care is still such a mess.

      Maybe because almost everyone talking about UBI already has healthcare, so it's a lower priority.

  • I'm sure people will always find issues with UBI and depending on the degree of UBI we're talking about, I could agree with some of them. However, any discussion of UBI in the US should also include talking about APFC and what that has and has not done for Alaska. Because if there was something similar to UBI in America, the APFC is just that thing.

    There's people that want to be outright dismissive, but there we are at a point that this topic ain't dying out anytime soon. At some point actual debate abou

    • Not relevant, what the Alaska Permanent Fund is pay $2072 at the most for a YEAR, that's $225 per month. It can't pay 10 times that year, ever, which would be range of UBI

      • which would be range of UBI

        You're picking a particular definition of UBI. UBI can range from supplemental to full coverage. And that is not just me, there's plenty of policy makers that have pointed at APFC. So, I don't know what you're arguing. Other than apparently supplemental UBI appears to be something that didn't cross your mind.

  • by JackAxe ( 689361 ) on Thursday May 21, 2020 @02:34PM (#60087712)
    A rich guy is giving money to the poor.
    • No, it's insurance in lieu of all of the other taxes we get slammed with to fund our dozen or so social benefit networks.

  • ...can't wait to see what the Medium.com of UBI looks like.

    Fuck Jack.

  • by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Thursday May 21, 2020 @02:40PM (#60087752) Journal

    When the 0.001% tell the 49% paying taxes how they should be paying for the other 50% that are wards of the state.

  • by misnohmer ( 1636461 ) on Thursday May 21, 2020 @02:52PM (#60087818)

    All these trials, as flawed as they are because they are limited in time and population, focus purely on the benefits. I think everyone will agree that a utopian society where nobody has to work to live at some commonly agreed upon standard of living would be great - yes it would enable arts, creativity, spawn new businesses, etc. I don't think any of that is in doubt here. The problem is what nobody is studying, how to pay for it, and what this commonly agreed upon standard of living is (and therefore how much it would cost).

  • I'm entertained by the envy and hatred spilling out of people over this, but UBI is the barn we need to drag worthless businesses behind and to give them the headshot they need. Because businesses, which cannot create a product or a service that's worth paying good money for need to die.

    No small town needs hundreds of restaurants with waitresses on zero-hour-contracts who rely on tips for their income just because some loser had a dream of opening yet another burger joint and thinks he knows how to cook, bu

    • >some loser had a dream of opening yet another burger joint and thinks he knows how to cook

      At least that "loser" tried something to better his lot in life instead of sitting around waiting for government to take care of him. He didn't force anyone to sacrifice anything for his dream unlike the "winners" doing nothing but waiting and begging for UBI.

      You sound like a very nasty authoritarian being upset by other people deciding what to do with their own lives. Here is a protip. Mind your own business.

      • At least that "loser" tried something to better his lot in life ...

        No. Just because you open a shop doesn't mean you've bettered your life. That's exactly the illusion those loser fall for every time. Many businesses close in their first year. And businesses that declare bankruptcy don't even need to pay all their debts. Compare this to getting money from your government. At least the people who know they cannot run a business and register for unemployment leave it up to the government to decide. But businesses that fail to pay their debts end up dragging other businesses

        • >doesn't mean you've bettered your life.

          No shit. It means you are "trying" to better your lot in life. That's a hell of a lot more than UBI "winners" begging for government money.

          >businesses close in their first year.

          Because it's hard. If it was easy everyone would do it.

          >declare bankruptcy

          UBI won't solve your problems with bankruptcy.

          >Compare this to getting money from your government.

          Pay more taxes while pretending I get something back. Sounds retarded. Just tax less and I'll decide how to use

          • >doesn't mean you've bettered your life.

            No shit. It means you are "trying" to better your lot in life. ...

            This may be something your mum told you to get you of your lazy arse, but in business "having tried" is no good to anyone. Nobody gives a shit in business if you've tried. You need to succeed or you're gone. Do you think you'll get a medal for trying?!

            Running a business doesn't have to be hard, but for those who need a pat on their back at every turn may it be the hardest thing they've ever tried. I assume this would be you.

            • and no one gives a single fuck that you sit on ass begging for other peoples money. There is a difference between trying and failing and communist dipshit college stoner bro's whining about other peoples successes or failures.

  • This is like somebody at the office saying they're ordering pizza and somebody trying to buy in with a quarter.

    • Nope. Not in the least.

      This is like charging the $8/hr workers nothing, the $10/hr workers $0.20, the $12/hr workers $0.40, the $14/hr workers $0.60...the $24/hr workers $2.00.....the $40/hr workers $4.00, then pooling all that money and buying everyone a slice of pizza for lunch.

      Most of the people making middle-class wages get either a little bit more pizza than they paid for or a little less, the people making poverty wages get heavily discounted pizza, and the upper class folks pay for expensive pizza.

      Th

  • This new test of UBI is inherently flawed because it is being conducted by advocates, not objective researchers.

  • by cordovaCon83 ( 4977465 ) on Thursday May 21, 2020 @03:22PM (#60087952)
    UBI is definitely something we should strive for as a society. The efficiencies of our businesses and operations are insanely higher than they were just a generation ago - there's no denying that automation is going to cut the crap out of employment. There's no denying that even a modest UBI would turn around people's lives. Our priority needs to be regulating our industries better, however. I can already imagine a scenario where a UBI system leads to rising prices in different sections as average income in America goes up. Without that regulation, we could end up in a terrible cycle of inflation that really defeats the purpose of the UBI.
  • I didn't know UBI was 5 million per year! Sign me up!

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