Just finished "Bullshit Jobs" and it ends with advocating for a UBI, explicitly as a plausible first step towards fixing/dismantling capitalism.

Its a pretty solid argument, as long as you put the caveats of the goal to be to expand the benefits of society universally, not to consolidate the welfare state and reduce cost.

There are a lot of issues and technical details that one can imagine, and ultimately if the goal is to liberate all humans and save the world from capitalism, further steps would have to be taken. But a UBI does seem like a reasonable first step.

Though I guess the only would world the capitalist class would ever let a UBI happen is the world where we force them to, since even the $2000 one time payment basically is never going to happen.

So UBI as a advocating tool or a rhetorical device, but I don't think it should be a goal in of itself. A UBI is the compromise position and leaves the Capital class in place. Something closer to Universal Equal Payments (working title) should be the goal.

  • MechaLenin [comrade/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Building and strengthening worker co-ops would likely be an easier way to build class consciousness and solidarity among the working class. If enough people see worker co-ops as a viable and preferable alternative to tradition capitalist organization of the workplace then it has a chance. UBI, while it does in address the material needs of people, is ultimately a lifeline to capitalism because it maintains its power structure (owners and workers, etc.)