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@YangYouToo okay great. So do you agree that paying money into the economy - deficit expansion - expansion of the money supply via government spending - is counter-deflationary or counter-recessionary? & that the situation also works in reverse to counter inflation when the economy heats up?
@YangYouToo That's an important facet of the way the fiscal budget interacts with the macroeconomy. People usually just say the fed has more control w/ credit restrictions & sure, there is some control, but non-discretionary fiscal deficits play a massive roll in recession/inflation control
@YangYouToo Cutbacks in medicaid and medicare, food stamps, etc can be recessionary for some areas. And it's those places that precisely need those amenities the most.

In addition, poverty and recession and inflation can be locale specific & at large. The way you measure it is imperfect...
@YangYouToo ...We use all these indices and include lots of things that may have acylical pricing patterns which waters down the actual impact of poverty and recovery. But its all measured in hindsight and if there's a constant stimulus its hard to cull it back before a point of no return...
@YangYouToo ...of runaway inflation. So in short, means-tested welfare makes a lot of sense in theory. Expand the deficit when people lose their jobs, lose their homes, need medical assistance, and contract the deficit when they are no longer in need of those things. The problem as many...
@YangYouToo ...#yanggangers know, is that these means-tested welfare programs are inhumanely administered, they get taken away when you find a job, or are workfare and get withheld if you don't find a job. There's nothing that says a capitalist is going to offer you a job. We live in a...
@YangYouToo ...an increasingly efficient world. We don't want to do jobs that robots can do. We don't want to be managed under theory X management styles in which punishment, isolation, strict supervision, unyielding protocol, squashing of creativity, uniforms and other authoritarian...
@YangYouToo ...methods of producing efficiency in mass production.

But I go back to the non-discretionary budget outcomes. UBI would be non-discretionary but has no automatic cull-back mechanism when the economy is doing well. The legislature would have to decide to cull it back...
@YangYouToo ...when the economy was about to be doing too well. Which is a risk. Politically and economically if its not about to do too well. So the numbers and the data are important in making that decision. Should the numbers & the data make the decision completely? I'd say potentially...
@YangYouToo ...but at the end of the day, UBI is completely procylical. If people *choose* to not work as much, there will be less money coming out of the economy and more going in because of less income tax revenue. This would be good to spark industry if industry was failing to provide...
@YangYouToo ...jobs, but that is also location specific and you must not fall victim to fallacy of composition. So it could potentially be inflationary in that way, but the problem isn't that its going to make people not work. The problem is that there is no automatic exit strategy...
@YangYouToo ...to counter inflationary pressures from too much money chasing too few goods. You'd have to raise taxes. And the problem with VAT is that, at a certain level, its going to be passed along rungs in the supply chain in an inflationary way. Sure, it may be unnoticeable at first...
@YangYouToo ...but if it is the cull-back mechanism, there will be limits for its ability to do this before causing some cost-push inflation.

So that's an important facet to why UBI is a risky idea that may take some scrambling and it may cause politicians to have to make timely....
@YangYouToo ...unpopular decisions.

JG, however, is in keeping with this counter-cylical stabilizers already in place but goes further: it gives people skills for other work, it provides something of value for the community, and there is no perverse incentives as are...
@YangYouToo ...supposedly in the direct cash transfers arenas. Theres equally no welfare trap, if you like talking about that.

So, in theory, it is a much better idea.

But I hear a lot of the #yanggang on the welfare front. Theres a lot that is inhumane and undignified...
@YangYouToo ...recognizing the truth in MMT and heterodox economics means that we don't need to make it humane. We don't need to punish the impoverished. We don't need to dangle dollar bills in front of their face and say "find a job that doesn't exist." Nobody wants to be unemployed...
@YangYouToo ...No one wants to have the lack of dignity of feeling like a mooch. Theres so much cultural stigma involved in that. Friends, spouses, people who may want to invest in an idea you have - having at least some kind of job might be important for people who might be more meek...
@YangYouToo ...sure there are plenty of shmoozers who can sell anything and never need to have a real job and can always make friends and find people to love them but thats not true of everyone. Its not because they don't have money, its because they've been deprived of purpose despite...
@YangYouToo ...having ability for purposeful existence in the world.

In short, the macroeconomics of UBI's implementation is potentially problematic, whereas JG is not. There are benefits to JG that go beyond cash transfers as well. But of course, it is very important to make sure....
@YangYouToo ...the program creates dignified jobs, that cash transfers aren't withheld if we can't think of jobs that people want to do and that people would like to be done, that management is local, that management doesn't violate human rights just like any workplace. Theres potential...
@YangYouToo ...for even more than that. Creating a quality floor for goods sold at the market price floor. Feeding and housing those who do not wish to participate in the program for whatever reason. Building an inclusive community that includes the most marginalized members. And much more.
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