Re: The case for universal basic income UBI

Posted by jon zingale on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/The-case-for-universal-basic-income-UBI-tp7601843p7601859.html

"""
The very little Marxism I know tells me that it is the "triumph" of
capitalism to reduce all relationships to money.
"""

To reduce all relationships to money is an operation that seeks to
objectify things via construal as scalar valuations. That is, two things
are considered the same if they trade the same. The pedantic here may
point out the possibility of vector valuations, but the idea for me would
be no different. This is one reason I feel that it is fair to criticize
EricC when he suggests that two theories ought to be considered the same
if they measure the same.

"""
Reduction is a triumph if it captures what you're looking for.
"""

When reductions capture what one is looking for then the resulting
categories make for powerful rhetoric. IMO, it is exactly that reductions
to crisp objects capture what *some* want, while obfuscating the desired
objects of others, that makes the whole reduction-objectification game
so insidious in practice (a kind of conceptual imperialism?). Sometimes
objects can be presented with such clarity and precision that it becomes
difficult to imagine any others, to dislodge unproductive beliefs or
practices, or to remember that the objects are fantastic shorthands.

"""
But, ultimately, it's a capitalist suggestion, proposed by *conservatives*
who want to prolong the status quo.
"""

And in theory, services could be provided (at reasonable prices) to these
*conservatives*, services that ultimately (once capitalism enters its
death throes and not even the most unscrupulous can frack it for value)
provide infrastructure for the next and hopefully more equitable world
to come.