this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2026
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

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ok so over the years i've been a big fan of UBI (Universal Basic Income), obviously. It would benefit people.

So how to pay for it? Some say we need to tax wealth (and i agree). But interestingly, even if you can't agree on taxes for some reason (corruption), we would still be able to pay for it.

According to this site: US Debt Clock Live: U.S. National Debt Clock, the US added around $0.75 T (trillion!! equals 1000 billions equals a million million just for a note) and $2T of new debt each years on average for the last 20 years.

How much would it cost to hand each person (let's stay in the US for this calculation) $300 each month? The US has roughly 330 million inhabitants, so $300 /(person month) * 12 months/year * 330 million people = roughly $1T dollars each year. That's already the amount that the US is printing anew each year anyways. So it wouldn't cause extra inflation (besides what we already have) if we gave that money to the people directly. It's not a "full income", but it would tremendously help a whole lot of people, especially those for whom $300/month is a whole fucking lot. Thank you for your attention!

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[–] neutronbumblebee@mander.xyz 3 points 3 weeks ago

In general each dollar given to the poorest in an economy adds more to economic growth. That's because the velocity of money is also important. The person living on a marginal wage tends to buy essentials first and spends a greater proportion of their income. Some of that may go to local businesses who in turn spend locally with tighter margins. The faster money travels from hand to hand and the more participants the larger is the overall benefit. Alternatively you can subsidise something everyone needs like healthcare and education. That's effectively the same as putting money in everyones pocket but the benefits are more targeted.