Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 147 ｜ Universal Basic Income

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to Relatable. Today we're talking about another exciting subject and

00:00:05.820 that is universal basic income. Aren't you guys pumped? No, I really am excited about it. This

00:00:11.040 just isn't, I think I said this about another topic recently. It's not the most sensational

00:00:14.640 topic in the world. Might not be something that you're going to necessarily get into an argument

00:00:19.460 about anytime soon with one of your friends, but hey, maybe you will. But the reason that we're

00:00:24.060 going to talk about it is because you are probably going to hear a presidential candidate talking

00:00:29.520 about this soon if you haven't already, particularly Democratic candidate Andrew

00:00:33.740 Yank. Now, this is not a guy who has a whole lot of name recognition right now, but he's actually been

00:00:39.780 on some more conservative outlets like he was on Tucker Carlson. He was on Ben Shapiro's show,

00:00:46.560 but he just is not quite as famous as, you know, the more mainstream candidates, even a newcomer like

00:00:55.140 Pete Buttigieg. But he talks a lot about universal basic income. It's also something that Bernie Sanders

00:01:01.600 has talked about some. And if it is an idea that ends up appealing to people, which we'll talk about

00:01:07.960 how appealing it actually is, you're probably going to start hearing more candidates talk about it.

00:01:13.800 But I do think that we need to talk about it regardless of whether or not it's a big topic

00:01:17.400 in 2020, because it's an idea that has been circulating for a while. And I think we'll

00:01:25.320 probably continue to circulate. It speaks to a part of our culture that is important for us to

00:01:31.500 analyze, which is why we're going to talk about what it is. We're going to talk about how it works,

00:01:35.500 if it actually works, if it's effective. And then I'm going to use it just as a launching pad,

00:01:40.960 not going to necessarily connect it completely. I'm going to use it as a launching pad to talk about

00:01:45.800 a part of our culture, particularly for younger generations that I think needs a readjustment

00:01:51.660 and a rethinking about. So let us first talk about what universal basic income is and why

00:01:58.700 you've got people talking about it. It's the idea that every person gets a fixed amount of money

00:02:05.080 every month from the government. Say it's a thousand dollars. This is supposed to help them live. It's

00:02:10.480 supposed to help them meet their basic needs, or it's supposed to be like a platform for them or a

00:02:14.700 jumping off point from which they can, you know, start some kind of career that maybe they wouldn't

00:02:20.500 have been able to if they didn't have any money at all. The person who's best known as the champion

00:02:25.200 of this idea is Philippe van Paris. Maybe that's how you say his last name. We're just going to go with

00:02:31.000 that. He's a Belgian, a political philosopher. He's an economist. He describes it this way. It's an

00:02:36.200 income paid by a government at a uniform level and at regular intervals to each adult member of

00:02:42.040 society. The grant is paid and its level is fixed, irrespective of whether the person is rich or poor,

00:02:47.840 lives alone or with others, is willing to work or not. In most versions, certainly in mine,

00:02:53.740 it is granted not only to citizens, but to all permanent residents. So you hear all of that,

00:02:59.420 you hear all of that, whether you're willing to work or not, you're going to get a thousand dollars,

00:03:03.740 whether you're part of a family or not, you'll get a thousand dollars.

00:03:06.760 Um, it's not just granted to citizens. It's granted to all permanent residents. I would say

00:03:11.660 probably in the United States that also means illegal immigrants. This guy of course is not

00:03:15.840 an American, but this is the idea that a lot of people on the democratic side are latching onto.

00:03:21.120 And this is mostly who it comes from. Uh, he calls this a powerful tool of social justice. Why? Of

00:03:27.540 course we know that social justice advocates really like to even, or they say they like to even the

00:03:33.320 playing field. Really. They're looking more for equal outcomes. He thinks that this will help

00:03:37.920 achieve that. Um, it's seen as a foundation for people to build their life on. So they don't have

00:03:43.500 to ever worry about completely going without because they will have this at least a thousand dollars or

00:03:48.780 however much it is as a basis. They will be freer to pursue the things that they want to pursue

00:03:53.360 without feeling, uh, the heavy weight of having no money or the potential of having no money. Uh,

00:03:59.200 Andrew Yang describes it like this, a form of social security that guarantees a certain amount

00:04:04.420 of money to every citizen. So he made that distinction to every citizen with a given governed

00:04:10.320 population without having to pass a test or fulfill a work requirement. So his is the same thing there.

00:04:17.140 You don't have to go to work to get this thousand dollars. Every universal basic income plan can be

00:04:22.760 different in terms of amount or design. And this is true. He goes on the UBI, and that's probably the

00:04:28.880 term that we're going to use from now on the UBI, meaning universal basic income. Of course,

00:04:33.320 uh, the UBI he is proposing. So this is someone describing his proposal. He is proposing for the

00:04:39.200 United States is a set of guaranteed payments of a thousand dollars per month or $12,000 per year

00:04:45.620 to all U S citizens over the age of 18. Yes. That means you and everyone, you know,

00:04:51.820 would get another thousand dollars every month from the U S government. No questions asked. Uh,

00:04:57.440 Yang says that he would like to consolidate welfare programs and implement a program where current

00:05:03.520 beneficiaries would be given the choice, uh, between their current benefits or the $1,000. So

00:05:08.760 apparently under his plan, it is not, uh, it is not both. It is either or, uh, to pay for Yang's

00:05:16.420 model. His proposal is to implement what he calls a value added tax of 10%. This taxes, uh, on the

00:05:23.200 production of goods or services of businesses. There are some examples of what he would like to

00:05:27.860 tax, uh, like Amazon shipping, Google searches. He says that it would primarily be on these large

00:05:34.260 companies. He says that these companies often hide their profits and their income. And so they are fair

00:05:40.800 game for this kind of tax to pay for UBI. Uh, Yang says that this will have all kinds of benefits for

00:05:48.060 Americans. It will give them more time to focus on art. For example, it will offer better mental

00:05:53.260 health. This is all from his website as they feel more secure with the baseline amount of money in

00:05:58.400 their pockets. It reduces domestic violence. He says it improves relationships. He says, and of course

00:06:04.540 he is saying all of these things based on the assumption that the reason that all of these things

00:06:09.380 happen, domestic violence, what have you is because people are desperate for money. And with a thousand

00:06:15.060 dollars a month, they wouldn't be so desperate. And so none of these things would happen if people

00:06:20.900 had this kind of security is his assumption is his hypothesis. Uh, there are tech giants who also agree

00:06:28.060 with his plan. Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, they're totally on board. Other people at Facebook are on board as

00:06:34.000 well. Uh, there are even people on the right who are at least sympathetic to the idea or sympathetic

00:06:40.040 to the problems that Andrew describes in Andrew, sorry. Yay. Andrew Yang describes, uh, and, uh, as his

00:06:49.060 reason for implementing UBI, uh, one of those major problems that he says, and a lot of advocates for

00:06:56.520 UBI, uh, says is automation. So millions of Americans have already been displaced from their jobs by

00:07:02.780 automation. Millions more will continue to be displaced by automation. They say retailers, call centers,

00:07:09.900 fast food restaurants are all moving toward using computers for these kind of low skill jobs rather

00:07:15.900 than people. Why? Because it saves them millions of dollars and also saves them a lot of headaches.

00:07:20.840 They don't have to worry about HR issues. Uh, the fear is that this is going to reach every other

00:07:25.560 industry. Like for example, the trucking industry, there are millions of truckers that, uh, people like

00:07:30.800 Andrew Yang and others are afraid will be automated out of their jobs. Uh, so there's going to be,

00:07:37.040 they fear a huge section of the population that is unemployed in the trucking industry. Uh, these are

00:07:43.280 typically older men. So it's not quite as feasible for them to learn a new skill and to go into another 0.94

00:07:48.660 industry. The people at retail stores and in fast food restaurants are typically not always, but

00:07:53.880 typically people who are either in the process of finishing their education or who don't plan to

00:07:58.680 finish their education at all. So it's difficult for them to get anything other than low skill work.

00:08:04.720 So the thought is, is that something like UBI would help these people at least not be destitute

00:08:10.720 or hold them over while they're figuring out what to do next. Although it is important to study. This

00:08:16.940 is important to note. This is the argument that they make, but at the same time, they're saying

00:08:21.580 that everyone, regardless of whether they work or not, or whether they have a million dollars or not

00:08:25.540 gets this extra a thousand dollars per month. And so they might say it's for the desperate. They might

00:08:31.100 say it's for the people that are getting automated out of their jobs, but they're actually saying

00:08:34.860 everyone gets a thousand dollars, which of course is a lot more, more expensive, which of course,

00:08:39.360 uh, costs a lot more for us in tax money. So they use automation as a reason, but it's obviously not

00:08:46.460 the only reason. Uh, a 2013 study from researchers, researchers at Oxford university concluded that 47%

00:08:54.320 of jobs in the United States are at high risk of falling victim to automation by around 2030.

00:09:00.820 Uh, these realizations have now led to more Americans supporting the idea of UPI, uh, UBI, uh,

00:09:07.500 10 years ago, uh, only 12% of Americans supported UBI. However, today, uh, 48% of Americans now

00:09:16.120 support it according to a Gallup survey of more than, uh, 3000 adults. So that's a huge jump. And a lot of

00:09:22.500 this is because of fear of displacement, I think, but I think a lot of it is also because people have

00:09:28.340 learned to expect a lot more from their government, especially when you have people like Barack Obama

00:09:33.260 and Bernie Sanders saying that the government owes you things. I think people have just moved a lot

00:09:38.320 more to the left. So that's probably a large reason of why more people are accepting of this universal

00:09:43.400 basic income idea. Now, not everyone of course is excited about this. Not everyone thinks that this

00:09:48.700 is a great idea. The heritage foundation has conducted experiments showing that something

00:09:53.760 like this is not going to work. It actually reduces the hours worked per week, uh, because people

00:09:59.680 simply are not incentivized to work. Um, Paul Krugman is a Nobel winning economist. He said that he is not

00:10:07.300 support of the, not in support of the idea of UBI because it's so much money. It's just going to cost a

00:10:12.880 lot of money to the American people. And it's probably still going to be inadequate for the

00:10:18.160 people who are in need. Now, Paul Krugman is not a conservative. Like he is someone who is a supporter

00:10:23.640 of Obamacare, universal healthcare. Uh, he just doesn't think that UBI would be a good use of our

00:10:30.220 money and that we should instead, he says, focus on people with real needs, uh, through our current

00:10:36.040 welfare programs, rather than giving everyone a thousand dollars, whether they need it or not. He would

00:10:41.700 say that that's just an inefficient and ineffective way to help those who need it. And it's just more

00:10:47.880 money than most Americans are willing to spend. So Andrew Yang and others see universal basic income

00:10:54.600 as a kind of investment into the American people, uh, rather than just money they're giving away.

00:11:00.900 They think everyone would be better off, uh, if they knew they'd have at least a thousand dollars a

00:11:06.840 month. Uh, a lot of people are a little bit skeptical about that rosy view of humanity. Uh,

00:11:15.780 in addition to how much it's going to cost the American people, uh, some people might actually,

00:11:21.600 yes, they might actually use this money. Well, they might actually steward it wisely. They might put it

00:11:26.200 to good use, but there are millions of people that are not going to, there are millions of people who

00:11:31.060 would not, I think it's extremely naive to believe that everyone who gets an extra a thousand dollars

00:11:37.760 a month that they did not earn. And with no strings attached, with no expectations to work whatsoever,

00:11:43.980 um, and that they're going to keep getting that every month without any conditions. I think it's

00:11:50.220 naive to think that everyone is going to take care of their grandma and start a pottery making company

00:11:55.960 based on that. I do not think that that is actually what's going to happen because we've

00:12:00.900 already had experiments. We've already seen what happens when you just give people money

00:12:05.200 indiscriminately. It doesn't actually help. It hasn't actually closed the wealth gap, how much

00:12:09.980 we give in welfare and entitlements every year. Uh, and people actually are profiting more off of what

00:12:15.920 the government is giving them than what they're able to earn in a job. Uh, they're not incentivized to

00:12:20.860 go out and work. And so I just think it's probably, uh, not the correct mentality to assume that people

00:12:26.480 are going to be able to use this money well, and that it's actually going to help a whole lot of

00:12:31.020 people. Uh, yes, it's an intended to be an investment. And for some people it might be, but for a lot of

00:12:36.660 people, it's just going to be enablement. Uh, for many people, it's going to remove any kind of incentive

00:12:42.120 to work or to work at a better job or to get a more lucrative job, to work hard at their job,

00:12:49.000 to make sure that they don't get fired at their job. Uh, just giving someone money doesn't guarantee

00:12:53.820 that they're going to use it. Well, people who win the lottery, for example, they very often go

00:12:58.700 bankrupt quickly. You often hear about athletes and even artists who make a quick million dollars

00:13:04.080 and end up losing it all after five years. Why? Because all of a sudden they had money that they

00:13:08.960 never had and they didn't know how to use it. And the artists and the athlete examples are actually a

00:13:14.500 little bit different because at least those people earned their money. Um, but it's naive to believe

00:13:19.380 that when people are given money that they did not earn, that they are going to just use it to better

00:13:23.920 themselves and better their communities. Some people might, and that's great, but a lot of people

00:13:30.380 are just not going to. I think that you can look throughout history at how that's worked to know

00:13:36.780 that that's probably, it's probably not going to happen as positively as they think it will,

00:13:41.700 that it could actually further, uh, enable, uh, apathy if apathy exists. And for the people who

00:13:48.660 will, those people out there who will use this well, who will become painters, who will become

00:13:54.020 entrepreneurs because now they have less risk. The question is, uh, will the work that they now

00:14:00.120 feel free to do, uh, be work that is actually helpful or contribute to society. If I know that I'm

00:14:08.540 going to have enough money to care for my basic needs, no matter what, uh, that may mean that I

00:14:13.880 choose to start a company or a project that is really a labor of love, something that I want to

00:14:18.400 do, something I'm excited about, but that no one else wants to buy from. It might mean that I make

00:14:23.620 a product that no one else actually wants to consume. Um, the risk of entrepreneur, uh, entrepreneurism

00:14:31.320 of, uh, failing of having no money is completely taken away, but it is that risk that forces people

00:14:37.900 to make wise, to make calculated decisions that are actually based on demand. Um, in the scenario that,

00:14:45.420 uh, universal basic income allows for is one that the supply and the demand really don't have to

00:14:53.220 correlate. I can supply as many products as I want to supply as many services as I want to supply

00:14:58.840 without any thought really as to what the demand is. Uh, that does not help the economy that people

00:15:05.400 make, uh, that might make people creating their crafts happy because they, okay, they can do this

00:15:11.320 and they're not completely going to be destitute, but it doesn't do anything to help the whole.

00:15:16.140 And that is one of the goals of UBI or the stated goals of UBI. Uh, the reality is, is that some people

00:15:23.280 have skills and have, uh, passions that are not really worth supplying because there's no demand

00:15:29.380 for them. And there are skills that we actually need that Americans currently are not supplying.

00:15:34.780 Uh, there are skills in oil and gas and mining and construction and nursing. The list goes on

00:15:40.400 that right now are in short supply because not enough Americans are being trained for them.

00:15:45.640 It's just not true that at least right now, all of these jobs are being automated,

00:15:50.280 that all of these jobs are being taken over by robots. Some yes, but not enough to say that we

00:15:56.520 need to be, uh, indiscriminately giving people a thousand dollars to pursue their passions without

00:16:01.960 any thought as to what jobs are actually needed right now in society and are not being filled.

00:16:09.080 Uh, the goal of UBI they say is to, uh, give so-called dignity of life to people, to give their life

00:16:17.940 some kind of sense of being dignified, but that is extremely subjective. What does

00:16:25.520 a dignified life look like? What does dignity look like? You can bet that if that starts at a thousand

00:16:30.880 dollars, it is not going to end there. People are going to say, well, the cost of living is a lot

00:16:36.300 higher in New York city to have a dignified life than it is in say Laramie, Wyoming. So it's not fair

00:16:42.400 that people in Laramie also get a thousand dollars a month. People in Manhattan should get more. It takes

00:16:47.540 more to live in dignity there. Then people will say a thousand dollars. It isn't really enough to

00:16:53.500 live on if you're out of work. So this whole thing, it doesn't really help me that much. I need more

00:16:58.740 money. Realistically, especially if we're living in a more expensive place, we need at least five

00:17:04.200 thousand dollars a month to pay for rent, utilities, groceries, you know, an iPhone, a laptop, maybe a

00:17:10.060 night's out with friends. I don't know. Uh, how could the government be so stingy? I need that

00:17:14.660 $5,000 a month. Uh, it has never happened where we have given people something. The government has

00:17:19.880 given people something that they did not earn. And they either say, you know, I don't want this

00:17:25.120 anymore or I'll take a little bit less or I'm just good with this. No, we are greedy. We always want

00:17:30.660 more and more, especially if it enables our laziness. I'm not talking about individuals. There are plenty

00:17:35.340 of individuals that have gotten off welfare. There are plenty of individuals who have said, you know

00:17:39.360 what? I'm going to work even though I'm making less money working at Walmart than I am from the

00:17:43.140 government. There've been plenty of individuals who have done that, but as a whole, and as, uh,

00:17:48.320 programs go, they tend to grow and they tend to not very help very much. They just get, uh, flooded

00:17:54.980 with more and more money. This is probably going to be that as well. And of course, as UBI rises, the

00:18:00.660 taxes on those who are working are going to continue to rise as well. Why? Because you can't just create

00:18:06.280 money. It has to come from somewhere. And so UBI has to come from the people who are working to support

00:18:11.200 the people who are not working. And remember this premise of UBI is that it goes to people whether

00:18:15.900 or not they are working. We remember that phrase unwilling to work. It was also in Alexandria Ocasio

00:18:22.540 Cortez's green new deal. This phrase unwilling to work is something that you are going to hear more

00:18:28.880 and more over the next 10 years. And it's something to pay attention to because socialists, I've heard

00:18:33.900 this before. Socialists do not believe there's any morality or any, um, inherent dignity or goodness

00:18:40.480 in work that just by existing, you deserve to have all of your needs met no matter what, that there

00:18:48.200 should be no expectation or condition on you that human beings weren't necessarily made to work. Well,

00:18:53.520 from a Christian perspective, we know that that's absolutely wrong because work existed before the 0.97

00:18:59.060 fall. And we see, uh, throughout Proverbs, that laziness, that idleness, not working, just taking

00:19:05.620 pleasure in things, uh, rather than actually being productive is seen as a sin. And it actually leads

00:19:11.520 to evil. We see throughout the new Testament, that work is a necessity that Paul actually worked. Uh,

00:19:18.180 work is something that human beings were made to do. That's why when human being, when human beings

00:19:23.180 don't work or they're out of a job, they get purposeless, they get dejected. They very often, uh, get depressed.

00:19:29.060 Work is important. So when you hear a socialist say that, uh, you know, if you're unwilling to work,

00:19:35.060 you're still going to get all of your needs taken care of. No, no, no. That is a terrible idea. It's

00:19:41.280 a tear. That's how you get a completely apathetic society. Um, and I don't think that that's good for

00:19:47.940 everyone. And it's especially not fair to those who are willing to work. Um, if you think that social

00:19:55.080 justice advocates are going to be okay, by the way, another problem with UBI, if you think that

00:20:00.760 social justice advocates are going to be okay with everyone getting the same amount. So doctors

00:20:06.820 and lawyers, uh, getting the same amount as a poor person, a thousand dollars a month, then you're

00:20:12.940 out of your mind. They will never stand for that. They will say, no, rich people, they can never define

00:20:18.480 rich people. Rich people shouldn't get a thousand dollars a month. No white people shouldn't get a 0.99

00:20:23.060 thousand dollars a month. No men shouldn't get a thousand dollars a month. They're going to have 1.00

00:20:26.820 all these stipulations. If they, if you think that they're okay with a white male Christian lawyer

00:20:32.020 getting a thousand dollars a month, the same amount as the person on the bottom of their intersectional

00:20:36.480 scale, uh, getting a thousand dollars a month, you're crazy. So it really is a slippery slope. And

00:20:41.740 that's not just a fallacy because it's really easy to see the edge of the cliff. It is an expensive

00:20:48.120 and unrealistic idea that in the end is going to be pushed over by the very people who advocated for

00:20:54.440 it. Uh, it's going to not be woke enough for the woke crowd to give everyone a thousand dollars a

00:21:01.120 month. Uh, now UBI advocates say that they're testing it already in communities across the country

00:21:06.420 to see if people will use the money wisely to see if they will rely on the money to look for another job

00:21:11.400 rather than just sitting on their couch. But, uh, first of all, it needs to be said that they're

00:21:16.180 not actually testing for UBI. This is, uh, the money that they are doing in some of these projects

00:21:22.420 or giving in some of these projects they're giving to extremely poor families. Uh, they're giving them

00:21:27.080 a little extra money, like $500 a month to live on in addition to their welfare. So this doesn't give

00:21:32.920 us an indication of what UBI universal basic income would actually look like. Uh, what would it do to

00:21:39.480 our economy to give everyone money without them actually earning it? Even the people who don't

00:21:44.560 need it. There is no indication whatsoever that this is a good idea. In fact, here's what Forbes

00:21:49.800 has to say about it. And this is written again by someone who is not, it does not seem like who is

00:21:55.240 on the right, who also talks about his love for Medicare for all and things. This is what Forbes has

00:21:59.260 to say about it. The country's toying with the idea of UBI, all advanced economies are deep in debt

00:22:04.860 with pitifully low productivity growth and a massive looming rise in pension and healthcare

00:22:09.780 expenditures. Think of Italy where the populist five stars movement secured one third of the vote

00:22:14.340 in the last elections by promising UBI. They desperately need to generate more income and

00:22:19.820 spread it wisely. It makes no sense to waste money on those who do not need it. And I would add to that

00:22:25.820 and who did not earn it. So instead of saying robots are taking over, he and other people are

00:22:32.140 basically saying, let's give people money and, uh, let's give people, uh, money who actually need

00:22:39.440 it, or let's help the people who actually need it. Let's invest in the programs that, uh, we actually

00:22:44.080 need and let's train other people to do the skills that we actually need right now. Let's stop encouraging

00:22:53.080 young people. And this is me saying this, this part, this is me saying this, let's stop encouraging

00:22:58.380 young people to go into tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to get

00:23:02.460 a degree at a four-year school, uh, that they either won't use or we'll get a job that makes

00:23:07.160 them little to no money and they'll never be able to pay off their debt. So, um, I agree, obviously,

00:23:13.320 like I said, that we shouldn't be encouraging young people to go to college if they don't need to go to 0.90

00:23:18.700 college. Now, whether or not that I, I think that we need to invest in our current welfare programs,

00:23:23.260 I think that we completely need to reform our current welfare program program. So people are

00:23:28.000 actually incentivized to work instead of enabled not to work. Um, but you're going to get people on

00:23:34.300 the left who criticize UBI saying, hang on, let's like get Medicare for all. Let's get healthcare for

00:23:39.620 all taken care of before we talk about giving people a thousand dollars a month. I obviously don't

00:23:44.300 agree with that. Um, but I do agree that it's not the right time. It's never the right time to give

00:23:51.440 people a thousand dollars who did not earn it. And also people who did not need it. I think it's

00:23:56.140 an inordinate amount of money for taxpayers to spend that is not going to be, um, effective at

00:24:02.980 all. And I think that we have the wrong solutions to the problems. Uh, the problem is, is that we've

00:24:08.640 got a whole bunch of young people who think that they need to go into all of this debt and never be

00:24:14.280 able to pay it off. And then when they can't pay it off, they're frustrated and ask the government to do

00:24:17.960 it. AKA you and me, AKA, uh, taxpayers. So this is the line that we hear from Bernie Sanders and

00:24:24.160 Elizabeth Warren that we need to give people free college. It's the same kind of idea. If you're 0.87

00:24:28.220 unwilling to work, if you don't want to own up to the consequences of your choices, well,

00:24:31.860 you shouldn't have to pay for them. Um, it's the same thing that we hear with living wage.

00:24:37.460 It's this whole idea that, Oh, you should be dignified working 40 hours a week, no matter what.

00:24:43.260 Well, not necessarily. Like if you are painting watercolor paintings and no one is buying it and

00:24:49.660 you're doing it for 45 hours a week, you don't necessarily deserve, uh, you don't deserve $40,000

00:24:55.860 a year, however much it is, uh, for you to be able to live and to pay rent. No, there's this thing called

00:25:02.980 supply and demand. The job that you do actually has to have some value and it's not set arbitrarily by

00:25:09.080 the government. It's set by the value that it has in the marketplace. That's something that

00:25:13.380 Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and these people don't seem to understand that you don't

00:25:17.800 just give people money and it ends up all working out and balancing out in the end because everyone's

00:25:23.080 just going to use it to, um, you know, become an entrepreneur, whatever it is. It just doesn't

00:25:29.120 work like that. Now here's the truth. Here's the truth because our culture is heading in this

00:25:34.520 direction because we are so obsessed with the God of self. We're so obsessed with what we deserve.

00:25:39.580 We're so obsessed with putting ourselves in the center of everything. And this goes beyond UBI.

00:25:43.960 This goes beyond free college. This goes beyond the whole living wage argument. Um, this is especially

00:25:50.300 true. I would say for millennials and for young people, we are too obsessed with following our so-called

00:25:56.560 passion. And we're so obsessed with a superficial worldly definition of happiness that we think that life and

00:26:04.340 the universe exists to make us happy. And so we have to be following our passion in order for things to

00:26:10.520 be fair. Um, we need less people who are following their so-called passion. We need fewer people, uh,

00:26:18.320 studying only that which they're interested in. Uh, we need fewer people chasing their dreams, uh, in a

00:26:24.760 society that is so obsessed with this kind of superficial idea of happiness, um, who sees sacrifice as a kind of

00:26:32.620 toxic thing that you need to cut out of your life. Uh, I know that what I just said is considered hate

00:26:39.120 speech, but it's actually true. The fact of the matter is not everyone has a passion that is worth

00:26:44.980 pursuing with their whole lives. Not everyone is good enough at their hobby to turn it into a career.

00:26:49.340 And so we are not entitled to money by taxpayers or by the government in order to do that. Um,

00:26:55.760 now as demoralizing and as negative as that might sound, um, I think it's a reality that would

00:27:02.320 actually free a lot of people, especially a lot of young people from the burden they carry of thinking

00:27:07.120 that in order to have a fulfilled life, uh, they have to have a trendy job that they love every minute

00:27:12.600 of. Um, now in our Instagram world, and I understand that not even everyone that I'm talking about right

00:27:18.600 now has the privilege of being on Instagram, but I think speaking to the people that I'm speaking to

00:27:23.660 now in our Instagram world, it seems like that's what life is all about, that you need to have a

00:27:28.180 job that gains you followers and flame and fame and flexibility and allows you to travel and look

00:27:33.200 good all the time and be rich and you need to love it, but that is not feasible for everyone. And that

00:27:38.000 should not be the goal that might not be your life. And that's okay. You might not get to pursue

00:27:44.660 your passion or your interest full time. Um, our society today, especially among young people

00:27:51.520 prioritizes what we want to do over what we need to do. And the idea of necessity or duty or

00:27:58.760 responsibility is seen as unfair. It's seen as unjust. And so that's why you have these politicians

00:28:04.180 coming forward saying, well, you shouldn't have to pay for that. You shouldn't have to worry about

00:28:08.380 getting a certain kind of job. Uh, now contrast this to the greatest generation, the generation who 0.98

00:28:15.020 fought in world war II, uh, and then came back and rebuilt America as well as the economies of the

00:28:20.340 nations we fought with and fought against. Do you think that they were obsessed exclusively

00:28:25.860 with their passions? Do you think that they were only concerned with living their truth?

00:28:30.800 Do you think that they were unfulfilled because they did jobs that needed to be done rather than

00:28:35.580 the jobs that they wanted to do? I don't think so. I just don't think so. In fact, it seems that the

00:28:40.480 rates of discontentment and anxiety, uh, go up as the generations go down. I mean, study after

00:28:46.440 study tends to show how unsatisfied millennials are with our lives, despite constantly being told to

00:28:52.700 be happy and to do everything we want to do, I would should probably tell us that following our

00:28:57.120 so-called passions isn't our highest calling. It's not the best thing that we can do. Maybe the

00:29:02.120 human spirit actually runs better on the fuel of purpose and sacrifice of doing what we need to do

00:29:06.720 that helps the greater good instead of just helping us in checking things off of our list of goals,

00:29:11.480 goals, uh, that helps us more than personal ambition. Uh, here comes the caveat to all of

00:29:17.280 this. Okay. Here's the caveat. Um, I am, I realize I am saying this as someone who does something that

00:29:23.160 I love. Like I realize I'm saying this as a podcast host. Uh, I'm very aware of that. I am in many ways

00:29:28.560 a product of my generation. I have always wanted a job of flexibility and freedom. I've always wanted

00:29:33.260 to be my own boss. I did not like having a nine to five. I never liked having a boss. So clearly I am

00:29:39.540 not against people having a job that they love, but, but I started doing what I do now,

00:29:46.660 blogging, writing, speaking while I was working full time. Um, I didn't quit working full time

00:29:52.520 for over a year of doing this from the fall of 2015 to the beginning of 2017 until I knew that I was

00:29:59.320 going to have some sort of money in place, some sort of salary in place. At least I knew pretty

00:30:04.940 confidently. Um, I mean, I did take a little bit of a risk, but it was a risk that I was pretty

00:30:09.520 sure was going to pay off quickly. And then it did at least a little bit, not a lot. It did enough

00:30:14.780 for me to be able to do it full time. Um, at this point, at the beginning of 2017, I made this bet

00:30:21.460 based on what I knew. So I knew I already had a following. I knew my videos were doing well. Um,

00:30:26.480 I made really solid connections at a media company. I was charging a little bit at this point

00:30:31.640 for speaking engagements. And I knew that if this didn't work, that I would get a job elsewhere.

00:30:35.960 Why? Because we needed money. Now we were extremely lucky at this time. We lived with

00:30:40.820 my brother, which was a sacrifice, which was, it was awesome, but it was a sacrifice and

00:30:45.660 we saved money doing that. And the first job that I took in this world of media was actually

00:30:51.860 not a job as a talent, which is what they call the people in front of the microphone or

00:30:55.500 the camera, but was a job as a social media manager, which is not what I wanted to do at

00:31:00.120 all. That was something I had done in the past. It was not what I wanted to do with this

00:31:03.820 media company in the slightest. And yet I took the job knowing that it was going to one,

00:31:08.420 it was going to pay me a salary, a low salary, but it was going to pay me a salary. And so

00:31:12.820 we weren't going to, uh, you know, we were going to have some money and be able to save

00:31:17.160 some money, but also it got me in the realm that I wanted to be in. So when I was in that

00:31:22.860 role, I started taking steps, taking the initiative, uh, to get in front of the camera, to get in

00:31:27.880 front of the microphone, to make opportunities for myself and connections for myself. So I could

00:31:33.040 actually start doing what I wanted to do and get paid to do that. Now, at this point, I

00:31:37.620 started getting asked to do other kinds of TV appearances. I started getting asked to speak

00:31:41.760 at more places and actually, uh, getting paid to do these things. But even in that first job

00:31:47.820 I took in media, I made a sacrifice just to make sure that I was making some money doing

00:31:52.620 something that I didn't want to do, which was managing social media. So even though, yes,

00:31:57.840 I am doing a job that I love and I am so thankful to God for that. I could not do this

00:32:04.020 obviously without the grace of God and without the support of my husband, there were sacrifices

00:32:09.840 that I had to make merely because the value of what I was offering was not enough to make

00:32:14.760 me money yet. And so we have to remove ourselves from this faulty mentality that you are entitled

00:32:22.960 to do what you want to do, even if it doesn't serve anyone. And even if it doesn't, um, contribute

00:32:29.480 to your livelihood at all. So I did a lot of things I did not want to do before I did this

00:32:34.920 full time. And also once I was able to do this full time, I had to find enough people

00:32:41.320 to listen to me, to be able to make a living doing it. And so if I weren't, if I wasn't able

00:32:47.120 to do that, if I didn't have people listening to relatable, if I wasn't able to get hired doing

00:32:52.180 what I do, I would have stopped and I would have done something else. So all of that said,

00:32:57.920 if you can find a way to fill a need in the world and thus make money doing your passion,

00:33:03.660 by all means, go for it. I will support you. I am a huge cheerleader of people jumping off,

00:33:10.760 uh, the deep end in a good way and taking a leap, doing something they know God is calling them to do

00:33:16.780 for the glory of God that they are good at, that fills an actual need. I am so supportive of that.

00:33:21.380 Um, and while you are doing that, unless you're being financially supported by someone else,

00:33:28.160 be okay with doing things that you don't want to do, uh, be okay with working full-time or part-time

00:33:33.180 simultaneously. This is why the majority of people don't actually make it as entrepreneurs because of

00:33:37.880 the work that has to be put in for years without making any money, because some people genuinely can't

00:33:42.280 afford that. They genuinely don't have time for that. And that's perfectly fine. So it is okay to

00:33:47.840 follow our passion. As long as your passion actually fills some kind of need that is going

00:33:52.900 to make you a livelihood. If it meets an actual demand, uh, you're going to know pretty soon.

00:33:58.520 If it doesn't, you get a pretty quick feedback and you can look at numbers to see whether or not

00:34:04.720 people are picking up what you're throwing down or buying what you're selling. Um, but it is important

00:34:11.000 to realize that you actually have to be productive in order to have any right to do what you do.

00:34:18.320 Um, unfortunately this idea, now I don't think in all scenarios, but the pie in the sky idea that is

00:34:24.680 being communicated by UBI that is being communicated, uh, about free college is about people being able

00:34:32.140 to pursue their passions, uh, without any fear and with all the security in the world. Well, that

00:34:39.600 actually isn't, it's not the best thing that you can do. And it's not even necessarily the right

00:34:45.080 thing to do, especially when we have jobs that actually need to be filled and actually, uh, need

00:34:51.120 to be trained for their skills that you might have, or you could be trained to have that actually fill

00:34:55.940 a need in society. It's not all about doing the things that we want to do with the things that we

00:35:00.860 want to do are not adding value and are not actually paying the bills for us. And so I think

00:35:07.440 it just speaks to a mentality of our generation. Now there are going to be plenty of people that say,

00:35:11.660 no, this is for the poorest of the poor. Okay. We can talk about that. We, you can talk about the

00:35:16.740 injustices of rising, uh, prices in college. Okay. We can talk about that. But this idea that it's

00:35:21.920 often being perpetuated by people, that this is about security for people to chase their dreams.

00:35:26.900 I just think that's unrealistic. It's a symptomatic of a greater disease of self-centeredness that we've

00:35:32.800 got going on in our society. Um, okay. That's all I have to say about that. If you've got any

00:35:37.980 feedback, please let me know. I was going to get more into kind of living wage, but we've already

00:35:41.840 talked about living wage. We talked about it on a previous podcast episode that I don't remember

00:35:45.640 that it is very stupid that it doesn't make any economic sense whatsoever because people are just

00:35:52.080 going, their employers are not going to take a huge cut to their profits. So they can't pay their

00:35:56.780 family. They are going to fire people if they have to raise the minimum wage too high, or they're

00:36:01.140 going to raise the cost of the food or whatever it is they're selling. They're probably just going to

00:36:05.120 fire people and automate them so they can save all of that money. Living the living wage argument

00:36:11.380 really doesn't make any economic sense, but that's really all I have to say about that. So I didn't

00:36:15.300 want to dedicate a whole lot of time on this podcast to it. Okay. Um, I will talk to you guys soon.

00:36:22.080 I will talk to you guys soon.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - August 07, 2019

Ep 147 ｜ Universal Basic Income

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