Billionaire Richard Branson: America should give out free cash to fix income inequality

[Right_in_Virginia]

Billionaire Richard Branson: America should give out free cash to fix income inequality
CNBC, Jul 2, 2018, Catherine Clifford

One solution to income inequality is giving out free cash, according to the British billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson.
 
“A basic income should be introduced in Europe and in America,” Branson told David Gelles of The New York Times.

Branson was responding to the question, “What do you think those in positions of power should do to address social problems like income inequality?”

***

A universal basic income, as it's known, is a cash payment distributed to residents irrespective of their employment status.

Further, there are other reasons for cash handouts, according to Branson.

“I think with artificial intelligence coming along, there needs to be a basic income,” said Branson.

Gelles asked whether that's because robots will replace human jobs. “Because of job displacement?” Gelles asked.


More:  https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/02/virgin-groups-richard-branson-on-universal-basic-income.html

[Smokin Joe]

OPM, but is he sending out random checks?

[roamer_1]

Well gee, Branson, after you.  When you put your money where your mouth is (and are living in a mud hut)...

This concept is exactly as irrelevant as the minimum wage, and every bit as ineffective.

[Cyber Liberty]

You first, Dick.

[WingNot]

Those balloon flights and the lack of Oxygen to his brain are showing the latent effects.

[truth_seeker]

Abundance of unfilled jobs for 115+ IQs

Abundance or idle workers with 85- IQs

What to do with a workforce made obsolete by technology?

[roamer_1]

Abundance of unfilled jobs for 115+ IQs

Abundance or idle workers with 85- IQs

What to do with a workforce made obsolete by technology?

Tell them to stop looking for jobs and start looking for work.

[mountaineer]

You first, Dick.

Seriously,  why don't all these self righteous gazillionaires give away all their money?  Until they do,  we are not obligated to listen to them.

[skeeter]

Those balloon flights and the lack of Oxygen to his brain are showing the latent effects.

Branson has always cared about the poor. Here he is providing a lift for a needy person who couldn't even afford clothing.

[Cyber Liberty]

Seriously,  why don't all these self righteous gazillionaires give away all their money?  Until they do,  we are not obligated to listen to them.

Damned straight.  They need to lead by example.

[Cyber Liberty]

Branson has always cared about the poor. Here he is providing a lift for a needy person who couldn't even afford clothing.

I hope he gave that poor girl a cheeseburger.

[WingNot]

I hope he gave that poor girl a cheeseburger.

That would be more than his meal.

[Smokin Joe]

I hope he gave that poor girl a cheeseburger.

Likely a hot dog...,

[ABX]

Which would devalue the currency and explode income inequality but lock it in as it is now a government entitlement.

BTW, if anyone is interested, I would suggest two Robert Heinlein books, For Us the Living and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Although not directly in a series, they somewhat address this point. The former actually creates the utopian world view centered around a universal basic income, exactly like what many are pushing now. He wrote it like the dream utopia being pushed by the US Communists/socialists of his time (UBI isn't a new concept at all- it is what the Communist party here has been pushing for almost a century).

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is somewhat of a follow up book (although different characters and a much later time) that shows the result of the utopia- a slave class of people forced into doing the hard work (moon mining) while those on the surface enjoy a 'guaranteed luxury lifestyle'. (and subsequent rebellion against such)

If one reads these novels from the perspective of the politics and philosophy he was examining, it is a very telling look at much of what we are debating now, written a century ago.



...and as a bit of an additional note, we all have heard of the Cloward Piven strategy of collapsing the system- but what most don't ever get into is what they wanted to replace it with. A UBI which they called a new communism.

[WingNot]

Likely a hot dog...,

give that man a cigar......

Oh wait. 

[Smokin Joe]

give that man a cigar......

Oh wait.

Would you take a Macanudo from Bill Clinton?
It's all in the humidor....

[darroll]

Take all of the money back and dole it out evenly.
The rich would become rich and the poor would get poor.

[Smokin Joe]

Take all of the money back and dole it out evenly.
The rich would become rich and the poor would get poor.

Exactly. There would be a very few changes in the lineup, but for the most part, by the third generation the asset disparities would be like they are now.

[WingNot]

Would you take a Macanudo from Bill Clinton?
It's all in the humidor....

Did Bubba ever get the fish smell out of his stash?

[Cyber Liberty]

Did Bubba ever get the fish smell out of his stash?

Not our problem.  Billy took the humidor with him, along with everything else that wasn't nailed down.

[WingNot]

Not our problem.  Billy took the humidor with him, along with everything else that wasn't nailed down.

I remember that!  They were forced to return the Reagan China!  Not much else tho.   We probably saved thousands of historic items in the Whitehouse from being pilfered by the other clinton being "1st runner up"!..

[Smokin Joe]

I remember that!  They were forced to return the Reagan China!  Not much else tho.   We probably saved thousands of historic items in the Whitehouse from being pilfered by the other clinton being "1st runner up"!..

I think they had to return some of the silverware, too...

[thackney]

I think they had to return some of the silverware, too...

and:

two sofas,
an easy chair,
an ottoman,
a kitchen table,
four chairs,
another sofa,
lamps,
a needlepoint rug...

 $28,000 worth of furniture the Clintons took with them upon leaving the White House was returned in February 2001, according to the National Park Service.

https://www.factcheck.org/2016/05/the-clinton-furniture-flap/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/01/21/clintons-take-away-190000-in-gifts/36773cf2-8120-4d58-b903-d76d39a6cc3f/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d992029d0e1f

[WingNot]

and:

two sofas,
an easy chair,
an ottoman,
a kitchen table,
four chairs,
another sofa,
lamps,
a needlepoint rug...

 $28,000 worth of furniture the Clintons took with them upon leaving the White House was returned in February 2001, according to the National Park Service.

https://www.factcheck.org/2016/05/the-clinton-furniture-flap/



https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/01/21/clintons-take-away-190000-in-gifts/36773cf2-8120-4d58-b903-d76d39a6cc3f/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d992029d0e1f

Holy shit Batman.  Where hell did they think they lived....section 8 housing?

[thackney]

Holy shit Batman.  Where hell did they think they lived....section 8 housing?

That is only what they agreed to return.  They kept far more in gifts they claimed were to them, not to the white house.