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> if we can believe that there really is enough for us

What I am saying is that humans are not wired for the concept of "enough".

We have already had something similar to UBI in the form of fossil fuels and the abundant energy they provide, which have tremendously lowered the cost of the bare essentials in the developed world in the last 100 years. You can go into any super market in the US and buy a days worth of calories for about $3. And then you can go into a Walmart and buy a complete wardrobe for about $200. If you want to get crazy and provide yourself with the utter luxury of gasoline powered personal transportation (not a thing available to any human being until about 100 years ago), you can buy a pretty good car on Craigslist for about $1000.

But rather than use the excess provided by cheap and abundant energy to just chill and enjoy the good times, all I see is people (myself included :P) tripping over themselves to buy nicer clothes, and nicer car, or a house in a nicer neighborhood. So I'm having a hard time seeing how people will act differently with UBI. That said, I think something like UBI will be necessary to keep the masses from revolting against the rich. I just don't see it bringing universal happiness.




Star Trek is interesting to consider. Most see it as a sort of utopia, one that people could only dream of. And it's certainly portrayed as such. Yet "poor" is not really a measure of what you have, but a measure of what you don't have. In our Star Trek society imagine the state of mind and affairs for the hoards of Star Fleet officers unable to find promotion and instead left to meaningless toil while somebody else calls all the shots.

Well actually that's hardly even touching on the issue. Consider those that can't even get into Star Fleet! There'd be entire movements from these "poor" individuals indignant at the inequities in society. Star Trek rarely tackled this issue as it was always intended to be an optimistic, not necessarily realistic, view of the future. However, it did indirectly delve into these issues in one episode - Tapestry. A brief clip of it. [1] A longer cut of the ending scene there. [2]

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHoPLhpw2g4

[2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGvUDvZ7KyU


I like the idea, and it would be interesting to see just how much i can reduce my monthly living costs by




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