Thread by @TroyCHenderson

@tribunemagazine This isn't the worst Left critique of #basicincome I've read. But a couple of things...
1. Universal Basic Services is just a re-badging of Left social democracy. Ergo, everyone should be like Scandinavia. Sure, that'd be great and requires enormous class power, etc, to achieve.

@tribunemagazine 2. UBS certainly doesn't transcend capitalism and isn't necessarily more radical than UBI.

@tribunemagazine 3. If you're an actual communist who wants to decommodify everything, including labour and housing then just argue for that.

@tribunemagazine 4. Of course capitalist would resist any decent progressive BI that was funded via progressive taxation. But they'll equally resist decommodifying all those public services, funded via the same means.

@tribunemagazine 5. Public provision of some basic services (which I completely support) does not entail the abolition of markets.

@tribunemagazine 6. Basic Income would work much better with universal childcare, healthcare, social housing, etc.

@tribunemagazine 7. A lot of Lefties seem to have a real problem with guaranteeing everyone a Basic Income (but not once you hit the pension age). Seems a bit productivist and ageist to me.

@tribunemagazine 8. Not really sure how a universal income floor leaves people at 'the whim of market forces' more than present circumstances in advanced capitalist states.

@tribunemagazine 9. Universal public services does not mean 'nobody pays for them', just as is the case with Basic Income.

@tribunemagazine 10. A basic income that is not a stakeholder grant is not a 'lump sum' but a continuous flow of income.

@tribunemagazine 11. The author argues correctly that basic income hasn't existed anymore but then argues that it 'doesn't provide the power its backers think it does.' Pretty hard to tell when it doesn't exist.

@tribunemagazine 12. Good points on house price/rent inflation.