So, I often hear of conservatives looking to ban basic income programs at the state level. As I've indicated before, these bans are nothing more than virtue signals, as only ban stuff at state levels, and often in states where not much UBI stuff is happening regardless. But why are people so intent on doing it?
And I have an answer to that, they're scared. They're scared what UBI will mean in terms of its cultural impacts. At best, this fear is misguided. Perhaps they really do live in a scarcity mindset where we all have to work and if we don't society will collapse, it makes sense in this context to ban anything UBI like because you'll think it will bring ruin upon us, but you know what? I think it's a different kind of fear. I think it's a fear of losing control.
As I see it, we've been finding a second front to the culture war than the one everyone focuses on since at least 2020, and probably since 2016. And that is a culture war over work and the future of work. COVID really let the mask drop that we didn't have to live like this any more, with us shutting the economy down, laying off a third of the economy, and just ensuring people could meet their needs. If anything, we didn't do enough for people during COVID, as our responses were slow, often the bare minimum, and kept people in a constant state of stress and precarity, but you know what? I actually LIKED the lockdowns. I LIKED the simple life. I'm not an extravert. I don't need fancy vacations, and going out all the time. I like staying inside and playing video games and stuff. COVID lockdowns are how I view my ideal life. I wouldnt force such changes on people, but I would encourage a shift that way. And I think I'm not the only one.
Even if people don't wanna sit in the couch doing nothing, a lot of people liked the changes that came with COVID. They liked working from home, for example. They liked not having to get dressed up. They liked not having to commute. They liked possibly working less than 40 hours because their work loads dont require that amount and they're forced to look busy for the sake of appearances. COVID actually broke a lot of control employers and work had over peoples' lives, and people LIKED it. BUT...the louder conservative voice saw this as a threat to their way of life, so they opposed it. And they fought tooth and nail to go back to normal, even dragging the left into supporting their position for fear of losing elections. Basically, we could've had a cultural revolution and won.
Why do you think when Yang ran for president they didnt give him air time? Because they didnt want to give the free money guy attention. They wanted to control the narrative and focus on the dog and pony show THEY want you to focus on. Who are they? The political parties, the monied interests, and the networks. Why do you think after Yang spoke that one time they got Kevin O Leery to give a speech about the dignity of work or whatever? Because they didnt want us to focus on UBI. They had to push their own culture war in response. They HAD to give yang some air time in fairness, so afterwards they scheduled a virtue signal about work.
And that's also why republicans are trying to ban UBI trials. Because they kind of open pandora's box. At any specific moment, tons of worker bees who have been heavily brainwashed into this cult of work might suddenly realize that hey, we really dont have to live like this, and maybe we should have a society with a UBI, where people have freedom as the power to say no, and where people have the power to make work less of a focus in their lives. But maybe there are powerful interests who DONT want that, so rather than allow us to play with fire so to speak, they ban it before it gets off the ground.
Basically, they want us in a position of realizing that this is the best we can ever do, and even that is too good. because let's face it, if republicans had their way, they'd ban all safety nets, they'd go back to like the 1870s, and we'd all work like 15 hour days with no worker protections, and that would be life. I'm not kidding, these are the psychos who are trying to make child labor legal again and who recently undid regulations in florida that mandated water breaks for outdoor workers in a hot southern state. They're psychos, they're ghouls. And that's who we're dealing with.
Make no mistake, if you're for UBI, youre on the right side of history. These psychos arent. And they will do anything to stop the american people from being enlightened and pushing for changes that actually improve peoples' lives. So keep pushing.
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