GBI is the new buzz phrase that’s the talk of academia, Silicon Valley and the elites on both coasts. It stands for guaranteed basic income. It’s really just welfare by another name, but it would apply to a much broader group than just the poor and you would not have to pass any income tests or work requirements to qualify.
Basically, the government will just send everyone a check if you’re below a certain income level. It doesn’t matter if you’re able-bodied or eligible for work. Everyone making below a certain amount of money gets a check.
The idea behind GBI is that technology is making many jobs obsolete and those jobs are not coming back. Some Americans can compete in the new high-tech high-reward world, but most cannot. If people cannot get jobs and incomes stagnate, then there will be no consumption and no one to buy the gadgets that the tech companies are making. Instead, everyone will get a check so they can spend freely.
The advocates for GBI see no problem with the budget deficit aspects of this. In their view, the Fed can monetize the debt forever; so there’s no problem finding the money. One variation of GBI as described in this article is the “guaranteed job.” This sounds better than GBI, but the jobs will be low or negative productivity government jobs requiring few or no skills and offering no advancement.
The guaranteed jobs plan sounds better to politicians than GBI, but it still causes massive budget deficits without much in return. In the end, the GBI and guaranteed jobs plans will fail as they always do. But that does not mean they won’t be tried.
You should expect this to be a big political issue in the 2018 mid-term elections and the 2020 presidential election. The deficits that go along with GBI will guarantee that America continues to go broke.
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