Essay #3 Due 4-23-19
In the context of Annie Lowry’s Give People Money, support, refute, or complicate the argument that Universal Basic Income is a necessary implementation for human rights, social order, and permanent unemployment.
For other sources:
Read Oren Cass’ “Why a Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea” and write an essay that supports, defends, or complicates the author’s position that UBI will do more harm than good. For sources, I refer you to Universal Basic Income explained, UBI being used in other countries, UBI explained by Jordan Peterson as a life-purpose problem.
Option B (New Addition): Should Community College be Free?
Develop an argumentative thesis that addresses the claim that community college should be free.
"Free Cheese in the Mousetrap?"
Look at pros and cons from Forbes article.
Recent Atlantic article argues for free community college.
Option C: Read "In admissions scandal, the students should be expelled" by Michael Hiltzik and support or defend the author's assertion. Should rich students whose parents paid their way illegally into top-tier colleges be expelled? Are all these students equal? Some are not even taking classes seriously evidenced by their YouTube videos. Others may be performing well. Should their performance make a difference?
Also see Atlantic essay about "Real Scandal" and how there is no way to prevent the next college scandal.
See Clint Smith essay "Elite Colleges Constantly Tell Low-Income Students That They Don't Belong."
Default Setting Essay Template
7 Paragraphs, 135 words per paragraph, approx. 1,000 words
Paragraph 1: Attention-getting introduction transitioning to argumentative claim (thesis)
Paragraphs 2-4: Body paragraphs that give reasons for supporting your claim.
Paragraphs 5 & 6: Counterarguments in which you anticipate how your opponents will disagree with you, and you then provide rebuttals to those counterarguments.
Paragraph 7: Conclusion, an emotionally powerful re-statement of your thesis.
Make sure to include a Works Cited page.
3-21 Essay #2 due on turnitin. Homework #7: Read Give People Money, Chapters 1-3 and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains how the job market will change in ways that make a compelling case for Universal Basic Income. We will go over essay 3 options. Read Oren Cass’ “Why a Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea” and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains the author’s position. You can also consult Nathan Heller's New Yorker essay "Who Really Stands to Win from Universal Basic Income?" See YouTube video explained; Wall Street Journal on YouTube; Yuval Noah Harari argues life without work will result in meaning of life crisis. Other sources:
Case for and against UBI in USA according to Vox
No Strings Attached in LARB, 2018
3-26 Homework #8: Read Give People Money, chapters 4 and 5, and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains how the kludgeocracy makes a compelling case for Universal Basic Income.
3-28 Homework #9: Read Give People Money, chapters 6 and 7, and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains how America’s racial injustice makes a compelling case for Universal Basic Income.
4-2 Homework #10: Read Give People Money, chapters 8 to end of the book, and in a 3-paragraph essay explain the practical, economic, and philosophical problems raised by trying to give everyone a Universal Basic Income.
4-4: Give People Money, chapter 8 to end of the book;
4-16 Option B (New Addition): Should Community College be Free?
Develop an argumentative thesis that addresses the claim that community college should be free.
4-18 Peer Edit for Essay 3 and Portfolio Grading Part 1
4-23 Essay #3 Due.
UBI Sources & Ideas
UBI LifeHacker
New Yorker, 2018
UBI, Bloomberg
UBI, Dissent
UBI, New Republic
Videos
UBI Explained (10 minute video)
UBI Jordan Peterson (11 minutes)
Andrew Yang (18)
Sam Harris (8)
What countries have tried UBI? (8)
Next Homework #15: Read Garrett Hardin's "Lifeboat Ethics" and write a 3-paragraph essay that identifies 3 possible objections to his argument.
Arguments in Support of Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. 47% of the jobs will be lost in the next 10-20 years. We have a new paradigm that requires a new way of providing a livelihood to our citizens.
Two. UBI, which is a monthly stipend to everyone regardless of income, would be nearly a trillion dollars cheaper a year than current welfare system.
Three. UBI would eliminate need for minimum wage. Lower minimum wage would encourage more hiring.
Four. Because UBI doesn't give more money for children, UBI doesn't reward one lifestyle over another.
Five. Citizens would have more time and resources to train and get educated for more career options presuming they used their time and money wisely.
Six. Most stay-at-home parents are women who have not been justly paid for their domestic work over the centuries. UBI would help remedy that injustice.
Seven. UBI gives citizens an escape valve from an abusive job or relationship. Having guaranteed money makes it easier to bail when you have to. "This is jacked up, man. I've got to bail."
Eight. 13K a year isn't so much that you would be content to retire in your house. Most people would want at the very least to supplement their meager income with part-time or full-time work. More enterprising citizens would use their free time and money for education and job retraining.
Nine. UBI would eliminate welfare abuses and welfare fraud because UBI spells the death of welfare as we know it.
Ten. Providing for the citizens with UBI would lessen the risk of the kind of discontent that leads to nationalist nativism, a racist political movement that makes one ethnic tribe hate on immigrants as scapegoats for the country's woes.
Eleven. Addressing the counterargument that not having to work would make us lazy depressed slobs, some would argue that technology is forcing us to change and adapt. Just as coal workers are inevitably going to become extinct in the next century, we must adapt to a new employment landscape. We must either adapt or die. We must not be chained to our "Calvinism hangover," the deeply American notion that work is salvation and unemployment is a sign of sin and depravity.
Twelve. The rich know they have to share their wealth because the throng with torches and pitchforks will be knocking on their doors. In other words, UBI is much needed pacifier, a form of social control that augments the safety of the rich.
Thirteen. The open debate about UBI--the biggest debate--is the philosophical question about the nature of work. Some say UBI will kill work and that without work people will descend into depression and pathology. Others say we will adapt to this new economic landscape. One argument in favor of UBI is that even if we don't know the answer to this question definitively, we HAVE NO CHOICE but to adapt to a world where close to 50% of jobs will be lost.
Fourteen. Technology will change the human animal on a chemical level and we will be able to adapt to the new work environment as evidenced by Elon Musk's exploration into his new neural lace company. Such technologies will make us smarter and more adaptive as human beings.
Fifteen. Even if we concede that not working will turn us into lazy bums, that is the lesser evil of the economic injustice social chaos resulting from not having UBI.
Arguments Against Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. A dependent society is a dysfunctional society. Dependence, in other words, leads to laziness. People are their best when they have purpose and self-reliance. To embrace UBI is to embrace the nihilism of a post-work society. In other words, we are admitting that we have given up on the social contract: to provide decent work for our citizens. "We lost."
Two. A lack of self-reliance diseases the soul and corrupts society. The dependent will drag down the producers.
Three. Acute dependence leads to totalitarianism and dehumanization. Once you take a government handout, you become vulnerable to the government's control over every part of your life. See The Giver.
Four. Acute dependence breaks down the family unit. Parents aren't responsible for their children; the government is. Why stick to your family, when you don't rely on them?
Five. Being "off the grid" makes one chronically depressed, non-productive, and unemployable. Our identity and sense of well-being is tied to having a job.
Six. There is no increment for children. Why not? Because you're not encouraged to have children to get more. Some find this a form of lifestyle control. Others like it.
Seven. The estimated 13K a year isn't enough though some say that still puts people in the top 12% of all global earners.
Eight. Unless all countries had equal UBI, the more desirable UBI countries would be a magnet for people of other countries who'd swarm into "healthy UBI" countries to bilk their system.
Nine. UBI is giving 15% of average national income. This would require tax revenue of 15% of national income. That is too much tax, some say, for such a small income.
Ten. People with UBI income and nothing else will be forced to move to country. Big money makers will live in the city. The polarization of city and country people will worsen the country's divide.
Eleven. We only have inflation studies from small populations, and these studies do not quell doubts that UBI-driven inflation will negate UBI's supposed benefits.
Inflation Studies?
Stanford has a skeptical critique of UBI.
Skeptical look at inflation and UBI in The Hill.
Consult the following:
Universal Basic Income: Side Effect of the Tech Revolution?
The Progressive Case for Replacing the Welfare State with Basic Income
We can afford UBI, but is it a good idea?
Why Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea
A Primer or Introduction to Universal Basic Income
Economist gives us an introduction to UBI.
Psychology Change Needed for Universal Basic Income
Arguments for Universal Basic Income
3 Reasons for Universal Basic Income from Brookings Institute
Pro-Work Argument for UBI
Washington Post article that argues UBI won't make America great again.
Challenging the American Work Ethic
There is a notion in America, from the beginning of its European history, that being a hard worker means being noble, virtuous, and successful.
The contrary is also assumed: If you're poor and unemployed, your life is evidence that you are a member of the damned. You are morally depraved and bankrupt.
This notion comes from a form of Protestantism called Calvinism. John Calvin said evidence of being a member of God's elect was being a hard worker. German philosopher Max Weber said this became the "Protestant Work Ethic," the fuel of American capitalism.
Read "The Protestant Work Ethic Is Real"
Sample Thesis Statements
Universal Basic Income is doomed to fail because it is a concession of a failed economic system, a surrender to the oligarchy, and a miserable fake solution to poverty and human dignity.
Failed or not, Universal Basic Income is the palliative dog treat that will be stuffed down our throats in order to pacify the masses from revolt in a new economy that will surely leave more and more people behind.
While sure to go through its growing pains, UBI must be embraced because we have no choice but to hinge our hopes for human dignity and humanitarian aid to the masses through UBI and be diligent as we perfect it over time.
UBI is the stinky monster we must go to bed with because without that stinky monster we will have to go to bed cold, wet, and hungry.
Conservatives and liberals alike rightly embrace UBI because it is the reasonable response to permanent mass unemployment and the need for a streamlined welfare program for the have-nots.
Far-left pundits are correct to reject UBI as a crappy drug designed to shut up the masses who will be getting punk-fed while the 1% laugh their way to the bank.
Even if UBI works on an economic level, human beings are not psychologically and spiritually hard-wired to live a life without structure, responsibility, and accountability, and as a result, UBI will spell the death to millions of the unemployed masses whose crap existence will be at its essence a condition of moral and intellectual dissolution.
Take What Sucks Less
Sure, UBI sucks. It’s hardly enough money to create economic justice. It’s surely a pacifier for the masses who are getting punk fed the bare minimum to live a half-decent existence. I’m also certain that UBI will relegate most of us to some sweaty, dank room where we’ll intoxicate ourselves with a myriad of unsavory substances while looking on with bloodshot eyes at some entertainment or other on YouTube or Netflix.
We will grow fat, complacent, brain-dead. We’ll become less than human. We’ll become more like zombies, slogging through life without an ounce of pride or dignity as we live a sedentary life without individual goals, responsibility, or life purpose. We will be soulless pods hooked up to our private entertainment centers while the 1%, the real people, pull the strings, create technology that advances civilization and enjoy the spoils of their efforts as full human beings flourishing in some opulent environment while the rest of us poor UBI-receiving bots live like crammed sardines in shared housing with our equally depressed, brain-dead zombie roommates.
So am I arguing against UBI? Hell no. Even if our lives are as crappy as the one I described above, the life without UBI as we head for the Great Unemployment Age presents an even greater hellish existence, one with starvation, a lack of basic medical supplies and treatment, and abject homelessness.
Yeah, UBI sucks, but not getting UBI sucks even more. Don’t count on the government to share the 1%’s wealth with the rest of us. The 1% will only share as much as they have to, and they have calculated that giving us just enough UBI so that we don’t become a raging, lawless mob is worth the 4-trillion UBI annual price tag. We should just admit we lost the class war.
We are now in the unenviable position where we can either take our UBI pittance, which sucks, or not take our UBI table scraps, which sucks even more. That is our dilemma. We must take this painful truth on the chin and move on with our crappy lives. The alternative is certain death.
The Sucks Less Approach Is Hideous
The above argument, which essentially paints us as starving dogs that should be grateful for the table scraps of UBI is so full of grotesque logical fallacies that the person who wrote this specious argument should be thrown into Logical Fallacy Prison.
For one, the writer gives us a false dilemma of only two choices: A crappy life with UBI or an even crappier life without UBI. There are other possibilities that the writer does not address because those possibilities present an inconvenience to his argument. For example, some people will continue to work and use UBI to supplement their income. Others will use UBI to fund their higher education, but the above writer is too busy enjoying his despair to consider these possibilities. Secondly, the writer presents a pessimism that is unfounded on evidence. He seems to think dehumanization from UBI is inevitable, yet he presents no facts to back up his claim. Rather, he indulges in his personal crapulent attitude and wishes to impose it on the rest of us, as if he’s doing us a favor by lavishing us with some universal truth, yet he is not. He is merely a Minister of Darkness contaminating us with his gospel of despair.
Finally, he assumes the worst case scenario of UBI and paints a broad brush over the human reaction to receiving guaranteed income to fulfill our basic life needs without addressing the complexities and unknowable, tentative outcomes. In short, the above writer is a grotesque nihilist who is hell-bent on infecting us with his anguish and despair. For the truth about UBI, I suggest we look elsewhere.
Study Questions
What is Universal Basic Income?
You get a check, perhaps $1,000, every month with no questions asked and no questions. The money can help you barely survive and essentially protect you from destitution. You could live in a shared apartment, buy food, and have money for public transportation. That’s it. Everything above that would require some kind of job or side hustle.
Not all the details are ironed out. Countries haven’t agreed upon an age or a policy for recently settled immigrants.
UBI is response to shrinking middle class, shrinking real wages, unaffordable housing, overpriced education, technological-fueled unemployment, and an over complicated welfare system. Countries all over the world are seriously considering UBI. Some are already implementing it.
UBI will give workers more leverage with their employers. They won’t feel as desperate to work for a horrible boss and/or a horrible job.
UBI will give an escape route to abused spouse who needs to get out of a hellish marriage or relationship.
UBI may give protection to over 3 million jobs lost due to self-driving cars in the next 10-20 years.
Concerns
Some are concerned that UBI would motivate people to permanently drop out of job market and reduce productivity.
Lowry estimates the cost of UBI to be $3.9 trillion to US government every year.
Two. What is appealing to Annie Lowrey about UBI?
Lowrey writes that she is less interested in policy and more interested in the ethical foundation. She writes:
“What I came to believe is this: A UBI is an ethos as much as it is a technocratic policy proposal.” It contains within it the principles of universality, unconditionality, inclusion, and simplicity, and it insists that every person is deserving of participation in the economy, freedom of choice, and a life without deprivation.”
In other words, there is an ethical message: Deprivation and starvation are morally unacceptable. A fundamental safety net, no questions asked, must be made available to the citizenry. This is the least decent thing a society can and must do.
The above is Lowrey’s central argument.
Three. How is shifting employment affecting the UBI debate?
Lowrey shows evidence that more and more jobs are being permanently lost even during recoveries as AI is becoming more and more self-regulating and less dependent on human engineers.
At the same time, what job growth there is exists in the “crummy jobs” department with fast food and temporary work being the new boom. Over 40% of fast food workers are over 25; in other words, adults are supporting their families with “crummy jobs.”
American workers are becoming more and more part of the odious, dreadful gig economy, a life of hustle without good pay, stability, or benefits.
We have a “good jobs crisis.” That crummy jobs are on the rise gives employers leverage to punk people with those jobs. But UBI will take some of that leverage away.
On page 49, we read of growing economic disparity between 1979 and 2014 in a major study.
Bottom half of earners in 1979 had 20% of income; in 2014, they had gone down to 13%.
In contrast, the 1% top earners jumped from 11% to 20% in that same time period.
Hysteresis
We have a new class of unemployed who suffer from long-term unemployment, about 2-3 years or more. They suffer from hysteresis: They lag behind in every category and has permanent lower earnings even after a recession.
Temporary Jobs on Vice News Video
Four. Why is not working so hard for Americans?
Let us set aside the economic need for work for a second and imagine being economically independent of work. Americans have a psychological dependence on work that does not exist in other countries.
Believe it or not, America has a relationship with work that is unique in the world. In other countries, people work for money, but the job does not define them.
Not so in America. We have cultivated a work ethic that makes one’s personal identity and spiritual virtue synonymous with the kind of work one does.
We see work, or industriousness, as a “social obligation and a foundation of the good life” (70).
This mindset makes us vulnerable for a variety of reasons.
One, should we make any job define who we are? Why is industriousness a “national religion”? Why do we have this mentality but other countries do not?
Two, is this a healthy mindset when crummy jobs are on the rise and desirable jobs are on the decline?
Three, is this a wise mindset in a world where technology could lead to massive permanent unemployment?
Four, have we been brainwashed to our detriment?
Consider the ancient Greeks and Romans argued that the highest quality of life was based on leisure and philosophical contemplation, not industriousness.
But Americans are under the spell of the Puritan work ethic which says idleness leads to the work of the devil.
Therefore, always be busy. Always strive for more. Always incorporate a side hustle.
While European countries see our social and economic class as a matter of fate and circumstance, Americans subscribe to the myth of the self-made man who lifts himself out of his bootstraps.
Unlike Europeans who see poverty as a trap from an unfair system, Americans see poverty as a matter of self-blame, the result of one’s character defects.
Social Validation
Unlike others, Americans are dependent on social validation that results from their job. Identity, self-reliance, moral and social obligation, and social validation connected with job status.
Social Stigma from Joblessness
Being jobless in America leads to shame, social stigma, ignominy, and chronic depression. It becomes a sort of death.
Americans recover from death of loved one, divorce, catastrophe. But they do not recovery from joblessness.
This mental state presents a challenge to UBI and future world of mass unemployment.
Freeloaders?
There is a work mindset in America that would resist UBI: Why should people get money for free? What kind of sick morally bankrupt system would allow such a thing?
However, Lowrey points to program in Iran that is similar to UBI, and it did not result in increased unemployment as a result of making people too lazy to work (82).
Going to School, Caring for Ailing Parent, Parenthood
Another argument for UBI is that rather than make people lazy, people will have more freedom to attend college, care for a sick parent, or do the duties of parenting.
Perhaps it is too extreme to argue that UBI would destroy the labor force.
Four. Why is the question about how UBI will affect our relationship with work “scary”?
Lowrey writes that this question is “scary” because employers won’t have as much leverage over their employees.
People wouldn’t have to do work they don’t want to do and they could gravitate to work they do want to perform.
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