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What is a good about Covid 19 related?
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IDEngineer:

--- Quote from: Zero999 on March 30, 2020, 07:22:06 pm ---As far as UBI devaluing the currency is concerned. People said a similar thing about he minimum wage, which was supposed to push up prices, negating any pay rises, yet that doesn't seem to have been the case.
--- End quote ---
UBI is a minimum wage taken to the ultimate extreme. The difference is that while a minimum wage is a form of targeted assistance, a UBI (by definition) applies to everyone. Well, anything that applies to everyone just changes the baseline for everyone. It's like raising all of the voltages in a system by some shared amount, say by raising the common from 0V to 10V... nothing actually changes because all of the potential differences, which cause current to flow, are still the same. A potential that used to measure 5V to ground now measures 15V to 10V - same differential, same current flow. For that reason, a UBI is nothing but a devaluation of the currency as explained above.


--- Quote ---A decent welfare programme should aim to get people back into work and avoid crime. It should be seen as an investment, rather than encourage laziness.
--- End quote ---
I totally agree with you there, and I suspect the "aid" program rules themselves are often to blame. For example, what happens if an aid recipient decides to use their aid funds to buy a bunch of meats and start a BBQ operation? To me, that's someone using aid in a constructive way to leverage themselves out of poverty. But something tells me the "rules" would find fault with that, not to mention the regulatory hurdles to them just trying to start a small enterprise to support themselves. There's a lot of fancy talk and handwaving about "helping the poor" but are the programs really structured to do that, or just to barely keep them afloat and thus perpetuate the dependency?


--- Quote ---I sit on the fence as far as UBI. No government has ever tried it, so it's not proven to work one way or another.
--- End quote ---
Agreed, but because its scope is universal it's very different from other aid programs and actually easier to project what would happen. Inflation and devaluing of currencies is very well understood. So is the market reaction to widespread effects, they get priced into everything automatically. The (over)reaction to that - price and wage controls - well, the effects of those on an economy are very well understood too. And they are not positive.

EDIT: Correct punctuation, add example.
Circlotron:
 Maybe enough military personnel will get sick so that a few wars will stop.
Gyro:
Getting back to "What is a good about Covid 19 related?"... News stories like this one!  ;D


--- Quote ---Coronavirus: Driver stopped on M6 lockdown trip with wife in boot

A driver flouted the coronavirus lockdown to pick up £15 windows with his wife in the boot of his car.

The man, who had bought the windows on eBay, was stopped by police on the M6 in Cheshire on Sunday after collecting his purchase in Salford.

Police said his wife had to sit in the boot as she "could not fit in the vehicle" for the return journey to Coventry.

North West Motorway Police issued the man with a traffic offence report.

After the force tweeted news of the 220-mile round trip people reacted with a mixture of shock and disbelief.

    A driver has travelled from Coventry to Salford to collect a £15 EBay purchase of windows. His wife could not fit in the vehicle so she was travelling in the boot for the return journey when stopped on the M6 Cheshire. The driver was given a TOR for the offence.
    — North West Motorway Police (@NWmwaypolice) March 29, 2020

Anthony Collier said: "I am amazed at how many people are still making unnecessary journeys."

Jonny Evans quipped: "Maybe he saw a window of opportunity."

The government has banned all non-essential travel amid the coronavirus pandemic.
--- End quote ---

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-52088987


Be careful of those ebay bargains folks!
Zero999:

--- Quote from: IDEngineer on March 30, 2020, 07:40:31 pm ---
--- Quote from: Zero999 on March 30, 2020, 07:22:06 pm ---As far as UBI devaluing the currency is concerned. People said a similar thing about he minimum wage, which was supposed to push up prices, negating any pay rises, yet that doesn't seem to have been the case.
--- End quote ---
UBI is a minimum wage taken to the ultimate extreme. The difference is that while a minimum wage is a form of targeted assistance, a UBI (by definition) applies to everyone. Well, anything that applies to everyone just changes the baseline for everyone. It's like raising all of the voltages in a system by some shared amount, say by raising the common from 0V to 10V... nothing actually changes because all of the potential differences, which cause current to flow, are still the same. A potential that used to measure 5V to ground now measures 15V to 10V - same differential, same current flow. For that reason, a UBI is nothing but a devaluation of the currency as explained above.
--- End quote ---
It depends on how it's done. If the government simply printed money and gave to to everyone, then yes, I can see how that would cause hyperinflation. If the money was simply raised from taxation, then no, it wouldn't because there wouldn't be an increase in money supply. It would just be a different method of wealth redistribution, replacing what already occurs in most countries.

Anyway, I'm not going to debate this any further because it's off-topic and is all hypothetical: it's never been put into practise.

Another good thing which will come out of Corvid-19 is a reduction in other diseases, ranging from the common cold, to sexually transmitted infections.
nctnico:

--- Quote from: Circlotron on March 30, 2020, 07:44:42 pm --- Maybe enough military personnel will get sick so that a few wars will stop.

--- End quote ---
That would definitely by a plus.
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