6 Comments

I had not heard the term "meta-conservative" but as a libertarian economist, my views have shifted left as evidence mounts that our system no longer serves "We the People." I discovered the basic income guarantee ten years ago and wrote a book on the subject that may interest you because it actually speaks to fiscal conservatives who are blind to welfare for the rich. (see Social Security Basic Income: A Safety Net for All Americans at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085Q1FL2D/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_o00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

Expand full comment

Soo…another who would have us be state property 🙄

Expand full comment

Good arguments, but I fear you assume too much logic on the part of conservatives. Most conservatives I know aren't that way because they reasoned their way in, but because Gawd Almighty wants them to be. Maybe some moderates will change, but the bulk of them think "resistance to new ideas" is a virtue. And they'd rather see the world die in nuclear fire than see the forces of the devil, with his drugs and homosexuality and uppity women, take over "their" country.

Expand full comment

So, your “wonderful” idea is to make people dependent and property of the state via UBI, and permit the lizards to depopulate and I’m miserable everyone because muh climate change?

The reason we aren’t the left is because all of that is fundamentally against everything we value and regard as human. You missing this means you don’t get it at ALL

Expand full comment

I can never understand this line of reasoning in regards to UBI. Now to be clear, I am as far away from modern day liberalism as possible; I loathe the rampant lack of morality and hypocrisy of woke ideology.

But the idea that UBI makes people "property of the state" is simply ridiculous to me. In fact, it's the exact opposite of how you should think of it.

If you are FORCED to work or starve to death, how can you think of that as freedom?

On the other hand, there's nothing telling you that you *can't* work in an UBI world; you are absolutely free to not depend on UBI and make money however you see fit. It simply gives another option, a baseline security for people so that they don't have to fear starving to death or being forced to live on the streets.

No one forces you to depend on UBI. It simply gives you far more options, which means more freedom and autonomy.

How can you be against that?

Expand full comment

There are some concerns; UBI can (and likely will) become a tool of politicians to gain votes. Overall, experiments in reality have proven that UBI makes people more free; to take care of children, to change jobs, to try entrepreneurship. I'll take another dependency on the government as opposed to dependency on capitalist overlords.

Expand full comment