Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

That's one theory that is easy to believe, but it's not true and is a gross simplification of how the European welfare system came about.


Here's an even more gross simplification:

All that great free stuff you want ? You will pay for it. Probably in ways you didn't imagine.

Go look at the economic flows (not the details, just the gross flows of resources) between master and servant in pre-revolutionary france ... now compare those resource flows to those proposed in a utopian "minimum basic income" society.

Those resource flows are the same.

EDIT: to be clear, I am not knee-jerk-opposed to MBI schemes - I find them somewhat intriguing. I'm just wary of them because they introduce a dynamic that ends up being very similar to other dynamics that have, in the past, been quite bad.


Does that imply Europe is more oligarch than America?

Those days, money is more or less a direct measure of power. Inequality of power and social immobility are marks of servitude. In this regard the US doesn't fare well (and has been getting worse): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_eq...




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: