Post #2000337

2026-05-05 00:51 UTC

There's a bit of talk about, let's call it "wasted Einsteins" and UBI. I want to take a very different tack to the meaning of UBI. One of the key aspects of UBI is that there's no maintenance effort. You don't have to prove you deserve the money, you just get it. The government just says "you're worth it". The point is: you don't have to be Einstein, you're still worth it. Are you disabled? You're still worth it. Are you struggling physically or mentally? Take a breather, you're worth it. The government is telling you, whatever you're doing, they trust you. Something that happens constantly with capitalism is that it makes people hard, calloused. Having to constantly justify yourself to be worthy of money. It valorises those who have the most, and makes losers of those who have less. At the same time, we can see how vile the bourgeois is. We can see how the load bearing pillars of society, the teachers and essential workers and nurses, are wrung out and left as husks. Everyone has to simultaneously deal with the idea that to be a good person you have to do good deeds, but also that you need to take advantage of others. Now here's the problem with that: Some people neglect half of that idea. Some people neglect being a good person and end up wealthy. Maybe they're too stupid to make money, and they end up broke and awful. But then there are people who neglect the capital. Those people die. They might physically die, spiritually die, or emotionally die. You can only take so much. I don't want the Einsteins. I want good people to know that society values them, that there's a bare minimum of money that will cover them. I want them to know they are worth it. I want them to be strong and to fill their own cup as they fill the cups of others around them, enriching everyone else's lives. I want them to thrive.

Replies (10)

@shlee@aus.social 2026-05-05 04:25

@bakuninboys ✊

Open ##2021355
@getter7seven@peoplemaking.games 2026-05-05 10:52

@bakuninboys Thread of irony to it all at that as, apparently, Einstein himself was A Pretty (Actual) Shit Person in terms of women/his relationships at the least.

Open ##2021356
@zombiecide@polyglot.city 2026-05-05 11:00

@bakuninboys Yes! I want a society in which people can be tender and caring! Periodically, I think of the archeological findings of people who, many thousands of years ago, survived horrible fractures because they had a community who cared for them. That is what connects us as humans.

Open ##2021357
@DavidM_yeg@beige.party 2026-05-05 12:27

@bakuninboys “The government is telling you, whatever you're doing, they trust you.” More accurate - and more important - your *neighbours* are telling you, whatever you're doing, they trust you.

Open ##2021360
@vnikolov@ieji.de 2026-05-05 12:51

Under communism money would be abolished and there would be no wages and no prices. All people would be so conscientious that _everyone_ would work voluntarily to the best of one's abilities and no less, and only take according to one's needs and no more. Also, no one would commit any crimes, and law enforcement would also be abolished. Communism was never built. @bakuninboys

Open ##2021361
@gemelen@mammut.moe 2026-05-05 13:36

@bakuninboys Speaking of the UBI and other unconditional payments or covered fees - they are so remarkably cheaper to manage, that at times the removed cost of a controlling structure to do that job compensates the change on its own. And from my own experience: for many years every year I had to prove that my disability from birth wasn't a fake one or didn't disappear by miracle. It's not only a question of (dis)trust to you or the insanity of this whole process, it's also a regular humiliation in front of a medical bureaucracy (that leaves you with a hole in your self-esteem for life).

Open ##2021363
@opfez@merveilles.town 2026-05-05 18:32

@bakuninboys how do people see UBI being implemented, when the state itself has a bourgois character? Like, in order to maintain the capitalist order, it doesnt benefit the bourgois to give into it, unless it is the only way to prevent insurrection. But at that point, surely the working class should fight for the insurrection and not a "nicer" capitalism? I recognize that we can fight for incremental change until the revolutionary moment, but I dont see how that incremental change should be what is fought for, over broader issues. Like one can implement UBI but still live in an alienated society - it seems to be a very limited proposition.

Open ##2035294
@kevingranade@mastodon.gamedev.place 2026-05-05 19:21

@bakuninboys "wasted Einsteins" is such an ignorant take in the first place. Einstein accomplished what he did in spite of Capitalism, not because of it. "wasted Fords" or "wasted Eddisons" maybe, but that brings into focus that we don't want more of those! Superstars of Capitalism are exploiters not makers.

Open ##2039601
@chicating@mastodon.world 2026-05-05 20:40

@bakuninboys I bet more people might make *more* things, not fewer. I've had a bit more money since I paid our condo off, and I certainly have. Money stress, of whatever sort, is a TREMENDOUS drain. Also, most things that you do, cost. Maybe just a little bit, but when you're counting every cent, it adds up.

Open ##2039602
@rkd993@aus.social 2026-05-07 00:39

@bakuninboys Capitalism thrives on the "dead and dying" 🎶 in any "little town" and everywhere else. One of its most obscene features.

Open ##2124917