[ExI] Sell your Bitcoins!

[Kelly Anderson]

On Mon, Jun 8, 2026 at 4:11 PM Brent Allsop via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jun 8, 2026 at 2:53 PM John Clark via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 8, 2026 at 4:32 PM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>   > Where does the money come from?

This is actually a great question Brent. There isn't, currently and
maybe never, enough money to do UBI, and inflation would steal away
it's effectiveness almost immediately anyway. That's why I've been
lately turned onto the concept of universal basic services. In this
scheme, you don't give people a set amount of money, rather you give
them a dry decent place to live, food to eat, water to drink,
transportation, Internet, and all the AI they might need to pursue
their dreams, and perhaps a few more things just to make things nice.
The reason this might work better than money is that the AI and
Robotics should be able to provide those things with very little
effort, while money inflates away to nothing when everyone has the
same amount. UBS really seems like it has a chance when you can build
a house for a few thousand 1971 dollars, a car for a few hundred 1971
dollars and so forth. The cheapness of labor makes all these things
affordable to the AIs to provide for the humans in their midst.

The problem with giving money to the poor is that they often choose to
spend it on drugs and booze. Where providing them with food and
shelter and a way of making a little money for drugs and booze on
their own might just work a little better. In any case, it's a rather
new idea to me and I haven't seen anyone try to shoot it down, though
I can guess who will try here.

-Kelly