The Great Debate - Free College For All

[sanantone]

I'm sure I will appear as the odd ball but.... what we need is some type of Universal Basic Income (UBI). I don't mean 5k a month or adding the UBI onto welfare program's. Cut the welfare programs and roll those into a UBI that is distributed to the people and they use it as they see fit. The MIT review had a few articles on the pros and con's of a UBI, and while it wasn't perfect it helped many of the recipients attend night school and afford transportation. They lost their welfare in exchange for the UBI but it made a difference in their life. That allowed them to make change.

Why talk about UBI on a thread about free College? Having free college is part of the symptom and not the answer in my opinion. When we look at the overall issues and problems of the USA, it's all about money.

Money is power and people need some kind of power to do something with their lives. With welfare you aren't given the freedom to make your own decisions or are limited to what you can do with that aid.

The current system is unsustainable as is and eventually will collapse if we will not do something about it. Everyone complains about tax's but no one realises our infrastructure is falling apart along with everything else, we are living on borrowed time. If we all don't work together, I'm not sure what the landscape will be in 30 years but it won't be pretty.


I'm in a hurry, forgive my typos and lack of sources I'll add those later. Moral of the story, we need systems that work for all of us and not just a few. Free college, eliminating your student loans, and all of that is a symptom and not the cause.

The problems with a UBI is that 1) you'll give it to everyone, even those that don't need it (I certainly don't, my husband earns the money in our household and we've been doing without an income from me for 17 years; my kids will graduate and turn 18, and we will support them while they're in college and earning part-time income); and 2) the government will eventually start adding back welfare programs for people, and we'll be right back where we started PLUS giving everyone a UBI.  I think it's unsustainable.

Oh yeah, and my 16yo, when hearing about a UBI said "if I knew I was getting that when I turned 18, I'd immediately quit high school." I said "you'd already be graduated." And she said "No, I'd quit NOW.  If I don't need to earn a living, then I don't need an education, so I wouldn't go to school NOW!  What's the point?"

If she, who is my hard-working, nose-to-the-grindstone kid who is not entitled thinks like that, you can only imagine what other kids/adults would think.  No thanks.  I'd like my kid to have to work, get educated, and work some more - to have purpose in life, not think that the government is going to solve ANY of her problems, and know that she needs to work to get the things she wants.  Even if it's a struggle sometimes.  Even if she can't afford a big house or fancy car.  None of that is important.  But to live off of welfare for the rest of her life is NOT a good plan (and that's what a UBI is, call it what you want but ultimately it's living off of the government).

I'm not a fan of UBI, but Andrew Wang's proposal is to give everyone $1,000 per month. Anyone who would drop out of high school because they're getting $1,000 per month, sorry to say it, isn't very bright. That's a poverty income. 

This is a detailed article on Finland's experiment. 

https://medium.com/basic-income/what-is-...b8e5051f60