Society where a majority requires UBI to live is going to be a perfect situation for any state—this means that the majority knows that without the state, it gets nothing. Soon, they are going to start hating the productive minority.
Tax the productive guy maximum he can bear, give part of that to the masses, keep part for yourself. No democratic change possible because the majority needs UBI and would kill to keep it. No popular revolution either.
It’s not that unlike the current welfare state model, just taken to its logical conclusion. One of the problems of the welfare state—from the government’s perspective—is that many people see eg. public pensions and money from make-work as something they earned, rather than something that they get from the state, which makes it much harder to vilify the actual producers.
Society where a majority requires UBI to live is going to be a perfect situation for any state—this means that the majority knows that without the state, it gets nothing. Soon, they are going to start hating the productive minority. Tax the productive guy maximum he can bear, give part of that to the masses, keep part for yourself. No democratic change possible because the majority needs UBI and would kill to keep it. No popular revolution either.
It’s not that unlike the current welfare state model, just taken to its logical conclusion. One of the problems of the welfare state—from the government’s perspective—is that many people see eg. public pensions and money from make-work as something they earned, rather than something that they get from the state, which makes it much harder to vilify the actual producers.