Uni Brainwasher

It’s my birthday! As a gift to both yourself and me, preorder High Fi Joy!

If you have valid questions, as many do, regarding alternatives to our current policing and carceral state, check out this NYU Law School video series covering race, gender, sexuality, and disability rights within criminal justice: 

UBI is supported by ultra-wealthy capitalists for the following reasons:

First, UBI subsidizes disruptive technologies. “The motivation behind the project is to begin exploring alternatives to the existing social safety net,” Elizabeth Rhodes, the research director for Y Combinator’s UBI project, told Quartz. “If technology eliminates jobs or jobs continue to become less secure, an increasing number of people will be unable to make ends meet with earnings from employment.”

UBI becomes a consolation prize for those whose lives are disrupted. Benefits still accrue to the designers and owners of the technologies, but now with less guilt and pushback about the collateral damage.

Rather than steer technology towards social progress by promoting projects that contribute to public benefit and human flourishing – not just reflect the desires of privileged groups – Silicon Valley elites can shake off critics by pointing to UBI as the solution, and one that does not restrict their profit motive.

UBI can, in some ways, be seen as welfare for capitalists. Now, more people can drive for Uber and work for TaskRabbit – at even lower wages! – because UBI subsidizes the meager paychecks earned by hustling for the sharing economy. The tech companies take home the profit and face even less pressure to pay a living wage to their non-employee employees.

The capitalist ideal of a “sharing economy” is simply an excuse to brush aside criticism while still disenfranchising workers and maximizing profits. The long term solution is socialism. Capitalism still allows for worldwide exploitation and suppression of the working class (see: globalization). Mixed economies certainly provide more than laissez-faire, but they’re putting a band-aid on the problem, which is capitalism.

I say this every time I argue for raising the minimum wage. I never hear anyone else say it and I’m glad I found this.

If you have a machine performing a valuable talk for your company, the upkeep of that machine is part of your operating cost. You have to pay to power it, to upgrade it, to fix it when it breaks. And if you can’t afford the machine, the manufacturer doesn’t have to do business with you. They’re free to take their service somewhere else where they think the price is fair.

For humans, a living wage is the operating cost. If you can’t afford to pay your worker enough to live nearby, feed themselves, and get basic health care - all of which are things they need in order to be able to work for you - you’re failing to pay for the cost of their service. 

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEL13fa9a28)