Guaranteed Income

Though I think it’s a hopelessly idealistic and impractical system to implement in America, I can’t deny that I’m very receptive to the idea of a guaranteed income. There are a number of variants of this scheme, but the basic idea is that the government replaces all welfare programs with a guaranteed income it pays to citizens. The income is low, so no one will get rich off of it alone, but it is high enough to cover a person’s basic expenses like food and shelter, thus freeing people up from needing jobs to stay alive. If a person wants a middle class lifestyle or better, they can get a job, start a business, or do whatever they like to earn additional income, and once they achieve a certain level of prosperity from their efforts the guaranteed income from the government should cease, seeing as how the person won’t need it at that point. Obviously the system would be ripe for abuse and with how incompetent and wasteful the American government is I wouldn’t trust it to run such a program, but if it could actually work it would be a dream come true for people like me who spend their days shackled by traditional jobs that steal away our lives in exchange for money. Yes, some people would just loaf around all day watching TV, Youtube, or Netflix, but some of us would finally be free to unleash our full potential on the world. Imagine the creativity, innovation, and positive contributions of a legion of people who are actually doing what they love doing, rather than what they must do by necessity. It wouldn’t be a utopian society—the inherent flaws of man will forever keep him from being totally free of his inner demons—but it would be a start.