Hello? Douglas Lain yeah I've been meaning to talk to you
Look, it's 2022 . I've got my thousand dollars a month UBI I don't really know
what I need you for. No no no no. I've got a robot doing my job now.
It's brilliant. I don't have to do this stupid show anymore.
Look, anyway buddy. I got a stuff to do so I'm gonna just let you go. Peace out.
Hey there obsolete leftist humanoids. It's your borg: Robo-Comrade 9000. Today I'm
going to explain to you how UBU saved the world. Now let us discuss how
UBI can bring our civilization to glory. Satellite uplink activated. Abolish
the welfare systems. Smash wages. Kill the proletarian humanoids. All Hail God
Emporer Besos. Besos Besos Besos Yikes! Maybe I better call Doug
Looks like this UBI has a few kinks that need to be worked out first.
What the fuck is Yang Gang. Yang Gang is a grassroots internet movement that
supports Democratic candidate Andrew Yang in his 2020 presidential bid in the US
He's managed to win over support from a whole range of political camps:
Disappointed Trump supporters Alt-Right dickheads, liberals and even some real leftists.
Yang is offering $1,000 a month to any American
citizen over the age of 18 starting in January 2021.
So the freedom dividend is my flagship policy where every American adult receives $1,000 a month free and
clear starting at age 18 and what this would enable America to do is just pay
our bills for one thing because so many of us are having trouble with that who
Who is this guy? Yang is a New York tech entrepreneur.
He went to an Ivy League law school he was CEO from Manhattan prep and founder of
venture for America essentially he's capitalist swine.
UBI goes under a whole lot of different names the universal basic income, guaranteed unconditional income,
citizens income. Whatever. Although there's a load of different ways
it can be implemented the general idea is basically the same every time the
government pays out every citizen a set amount of money once a month regardless
of their financial situation. A lot of talk in recent decades has been
related to the idea that AI and automation means that robots are taking
other jobs The purpose the Yang's UBI is to try and save
capitalism when it's totally in crisis and it's really unpopular.
The Industrial Revolution which people cite as the precursor to what we're going through
there were mass riots in the industrial revolution that killed dozens of people
caused billions of dollars worth of damage Labor Day is a holiday today
because of those riots. Yang understands that capitalism is in danger of being
overthrown by ordinary working people and he wants to protect it but buying
off the workers that are most likely to fight back from the perspective of
protecting capital it's a pretty good plan too.
Not gonna lie fam, there is something viscerally appealing about being offered straight cash from a politician
I guess the reason it pretty much appeals to everyone is that it
solves a fundam ental problem that we all have.
Support for NEETBUX is both ironic and honor ironic people aren't generally stupid no matter
what side of the political spectrum they sit on everyone kind of pretty much
acknowledges that the situation is fucked and it's getting worse every day
which is the better choice everything getting worse and worse every day or
everything getting worse and worse every day plus $1,000. Cha-ching!!!
So what about the MAGA Chuds? A lot of Trump supporters are pretty pissed
off but he couldn't pull off his racist wall agenda and win even a symbolic
victory for his misguided fan base in fairness to Yang he understands the
material basis for a lot of work is voting for Trump and although he blames
automation instead of capitalism more generally he actually addresses the
issue in a way that is distinct from Democrats usual neoliberal, judgemental identity politics shtick.
Donald Trump wins the election in 2016 and for whatever
reason in my opinion the media's is not being honest about all the economic
drivers they're blaming racism Russia Facebook the FBI and if
you look at the voter district data there's a straight line up between the
adoption of industrial robots in that voting district and the movement towards
Trump Trump's talk of bringing back jobs and keeping out immigrants all amounted
to pretty much nothing the main community that once supported
him is kind of bored of them now #YangGang has mainstream appeal and is
literally $1,000 a month. It's a policy that even those gormless fucks can
relate to but where the Bernie Bros in all of this? Let's be honest. Yang is
younger sexier and his ideas come across as a bit more interesting and futuristic
than Bernie Sanders traditional social democratic platform . While his base is
still strong he's kind of at risk of losing support to this more simplified
idea. Then there's our glorious comrades on the Left where did they stand on
securing the bag? Do they like it? Hell yeah! A thousand bucks a month means
less time it's been working more time building the revolution. Boom!
There's nothing particularly leftist about turning down money that we can use to
fight the power I'm sure some of you are wondering what if any the possible
drawbacks of UBI are? I'm gonna tell you. Although it's been tested in some parts
of the world it's not really clear whether it would cause an explosive
inflation problem or not. I'm not gonna lie to you fam, UBI doesn't cancel out
the shittyness of capitalism. Think about it this way if we had a guaranteed
$1,000 a month what's gonna stop our landlords from jacking up our rent to
cream off the top of that? And what's gonna stop our employers from paying us
less because they know they can? Fucking parasites. Even worse than this although
Yang is initially promising not to take welfare from people claiming more than
$1,000 a month traditionally ubi has been advocated by
people who want to see the end of the welfare state Yang is a pro-capitalist
businessman. Ultimately his loyalties are gonna lie with the markets and the capitalist class.
Well I'm a CEO and businessperson and I'll tell you that
putting money into people's hands it's good for business it's good for the
economy and it's good for markets this is not socialism this is where this is
capitalism where income doesn't start at zero .
So where's the Spicy Take in all of this?
this let me tell you how we should go down: As leftists we should argue in
favor of UBI. On its own it's not particularly damaging and it's an
extremely popular demand so we'd be really stupid not to. UBI under socialism
would be way different though. We should be demanding a bag a month. Give me that bag.
We should be demanding rent controls so that our landlords can't fuck us over in the short term.
W e should be building mass public housing so that we have our own
house. We should have universal health care so
we don't fucking die for no reason when we're supposed to be out spending our
#NeetBucks Fully free education so we can learn
whatever the fuck we want Universal Child Care so we don't have to spend all
day at home with our ugly ass kids. It couldn't hurt to invest in mass
Public Works and renewable energy you know so our whole planet doesn't become
totally unsustainable and we die in an environmental apocalypse
This is basic shit family. It would make life less sucky overall and it's pretty hard to
argue with so if you're at work and one of your comrades our colleagues brings
up behind #pussybux campaign let your comrade know that we can ask for so much
more shit we can demand more If your friends are DSA supporters and they
love Bernie tell him to get that old man on board with securing the bag.
There's no reason not to give in to such a universally popular demand.
securing the bag is great and all but let's not be cowards about it. Let's secure the big bag.
Ya'll already know what I'm gonna say let's transform this planet into the
Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communist utopia that we all deserve and
if the capitalist class try and stop us? I don't fuckin know we can kill 'em or whatever.
#YangGang2020 ? More like #BangBang2020.
If robots are going to abolish
most kinds of labor for humans then we can't rely on the mindless
profit-seeking capitalist system to deliver the fruits of automation fairly to everyone
Our task now is to imagine and begin building a world free from the
anxieties of capitalist social relations. A world where automation takes care of
the most degrading boring and difficult jobs so that human creativity is free to
flourish unshackled by our base material needs.
No no look I know it was in the
script but we didn't vaguely threaten revolutionary violence. You know after
what happened to The Serfs and with YouTube clamping down on the left or
whatever we just left it out. it was all it was all very subtle. #KillYourBoss #KillYourLandlord
check out the new sign big shout out to Tabasko Sweet for inspiring us with
his old-school, Cheap Thrills vibe! Quick shout out to Eugene from Eastern Marsh Lands.
for this cool spinning logo. Check out their channel on YouTube for
some good takes and for some lovely comrades. Like, Subscribe and ring that
bell like a capitalist's neck. Oh and until my bag comes in keep those
communist dollars flowing. The link for the Patreon is in the descriptio.
Hit me up on Twitter @BadmanMassive. I have barely any
followers so that would be pretty cool.
And as always... Stay Woke, Roll Safe & Keep It Spicy!