Week 12 Response - Universal Basic Income

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Question from @stonemasoner: Why do you think so many people oppose a UBI even when nearly everyone can acknowledge that our current social safety net is deeply flawed.

Response: One thing that will take a very long time to change, and is a main reason that so many are opposed to the idea of a UBI is the fear of socialism that has been engrained into our culture. Although that the plan presented by Dr.Trost was clearly differentiated from socialism, there is still a cultural fear and opposition against anything that resembles anything socialist. It was not too long ago when the major socialist countries were in power and many people who are still alive and voting today have seen or heard the poor situation that was created in these socialistic countries and want to avoid this. Also how these people find pride in their idea of how America is capitalistic and not socialistic, and they are not ready to give up on this idea. Another main source of opposition to UBI is that many people in this country are unhappy with the results of current welfare and other government "help" programs and have therefore lost faith and trust in the government's ability to truly help people, and before people commit to this, there needs to be proof that this money will be spent well and that it will actually help the people in need. Finally, many people are opposed to anything where money is coming out of the government's pocket due to fear of higher taxation since that is where the majority of the government's money comes from.