Jim Van Winkle
Well-known member
UBI isn't a left wing idea - it's a politically neutral one. It's been strongly promoted by economists and theorists of both left and right. The conservative view is that it would reduce a lot of the state bureaucracy in providing welfare and other benefits. It would also provide a safety net for entrepreneurs wanting to start up businesses.
Yes, there are plenty of people on the left who propose it but it's by no means exclusive to them
In this example the only person who has mentioned a UBI before COVID-19 was Andrew Yang. Trump was posturing to make his 2020 campaign about how good the stock market was doing in his presidency. With the stock market losing all its gains from his presidency, with people losing jobs and being cash poor they needed a bailout package and money in people’s pockets to keep the economy going. That’s why the right were onboard with an UBI this time round to out maneuver the left. How bad does it look if the Democrats don’t agree to put money in the pockets of people in time of a crisis knowing they pick up many votes from Yang and Bernie supporters?
Also, I am not disputing that commentators on both the left and right have proposed the idea of UBI in the past. Just that US politics was so far away from this idea before COVID-19 came along.
We are all just part of political posturing with not much say.