LprodromoOct 6, 2023
Katja
I just boosted "I think that the biggest reason I believe that we need universal basic income is so that people always have an out. A bad relationship, a bad job, a bad situation, even discovering you've overrotated on something that's turning into a scam or a cult. You should always be able to walk away without fearing destitution."
but,
more than that, we should have UBI so disability isn't a crime with a death sentence.
Oct 6, 2023 at 9:46amWeb
Show threadKatjaOct 6, 2023
Long Covid has kinda put "chronic illness" on the map.
Ish.
Which both sucks because chronic fatigue syndrome and other such has been around for ages, but also "maybe now someone will care, a wee bit, as a nod to decency".
I'm disabled and chronically ill.
I moved back in with my parents back in 2015 because I wasn't able to even pretend I could make it.
If they weren't able/willing to house/feed/clothe/wifi me...
I'd probably be dead.
Show threadKatjaOct 6, 2023
They live in Taiwan, so I moved here even though it was basically a foreign country.
Plus, affordable healthcare, when my medical bills were topping 1k every month in the US.
With UBI, possibly I could've stayed in the US, where my entire life was.
I left behind all my belongings.
The person I'd been in a relationship for 11 years.
My entire social circle.
Again, not exaggerating, my entire life.
And I'm lucky to have had this choice.
To be able to move in with my parents.
For them to afford it.
Show threadit's B! Cavello 🐝Oct 6, 2023
@Katja that seems incredibly difficult 💔
I’m glad you had the option to be in a place where you could be cared for, but that is such a shitty decision to be forced into making. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Show threadKatjaOct 6, 2023
@b_cavello 💗 it really is rough to know that despite all that, I'm lucky. It's painful to see how so many others don't have the same luck.
Show threadNorma Krautmeyer 🏳️‍🌈🍵🎨✂️🖍️🐈‍⬛Oct 6, 2023
@Katja it’s awful to have to see having to leave your relationship and all your stuff and move overseas as “lucky.”
Show threadKatjaOct 6, 2023
@normakrautmeyer It truly is. But the timeline is filled with "help me with a dollar or two so I can avoid homelessness and pay for this vital surgery". It's...just...so terrible.
Show threadNorma Krautmeyer 🏳️‍🌈🍵🎨✂️🖍️🐈‍⬛Oct 6, 2023
@Katja yeah. I’m in the US and spent a few years in disability advocacy and things are very ugly here for people with disabilities, and anyone who needs a safety net. How’s Taiwan treating you?
Show threadKatjaOct 7, 2023
@normakrautmeyer Taiwan itself...
I live with my parents and they cover rent and food and household bills, so that skews things amazingly.
Subsidized healthcare is wonderful, of course, but inflation in an island country dependent on outside sources for energy and sometimes food is...
Let's just put it this way: I wouldn't be able to survive here on my own either.
Show threadNorma Krautmeyer 🏳️‍🌈🍵🎨✂️🖍️🐈‍⬛Oct 7, 2023
@Katja I hear you.
Show threadcultdevOct 7, 2023
@normakrautmeyer @Katja i’m in the middle of that process right now. well said, both of you
Show threadgavinisdie Oct 6, 2023
@Katja I feel like with my anger issues and no abilities or knowledge that can be used to make profit, II have no future after I graduate high school next year
Show threadKatjaOct 6, 2023
@gavinisdie That's rough. Anger really can take a person hostage and it's so hard to deal with.
I hope you find peace and a path forward.
Show threadgavinisdie Oct 6, 2023
@Katja I have a few people to rely on, but I worry how they'd feel if I couldn't do a full time job
Show threadKatjaOct 6, 2023
@gavinisdie Yeah, going full-blown disabled has certainly let me know who really was willing and able to be there for me. It's a difficult thing. The silver lining is... that ultimately...it's good to know who you can trust.
Poor comfort, but...
Show thread🍸Pooka🥕Boo🍸Oct 6, 2023
@Katja absolutely... we need a UBI!
Show threadLfc007Oct 6, 2023
@Katja as long as it's not with conditions. You can only spend it on this. Sorry you've had to much of this, if you don't use it by this date it's gone. Just a thought.
Show threadKatjaOct 6, 2023
@Ianlongland Definitely. And I'm on the side of UBI in addition to universal basic services like housing, medical care, and food.
Show threadPhil ReesOct 6, 2023

@Katja Many who oppose Universal Basic Income think they're in with a shot at Uncommon Advanced Income.

It's like Robert Tressell wrote in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists:

"... what right have the likes of us to expect them to allow us to breathe for nothing?"

Show threadKatjaOct 6, 2023
@phrees it's amazing because there's absolutely nothing to support the belief they might eventually also become billionaires.
Show threadPhil ReesOct 6, 2023
@Katja Or that current billionaires can maintain their wealth. As Mark Blythe said, "The Hamptons is not a defensible position."
Show threadThe TurtleOct 6, 2023

@Katja but the whole America Thing was built on fear of destitution! "Do what we want or you'll end up on the street AND we'll take your keeeeedz awayyyyyy..."

I am in favor of anything that cuts the nuts off of both those threats.

Seen too many people stay in shitty jobs, locations, relationships solely because of that fear. People who'd have been so much better without that hanging over their heads.

Show threadKatjaOct 6, 2023
@the_turtle America continues to be built on the threat of misery. It's stunning when it's more and more obvious it's so unnecessary, except billionaires and politicians want their $$ and power.
Show threadThe TurtleOct 6, 2023

@Katja i will say that Democrats don't always help. Yes, they try to get people help, but then they dildo off into the weeds with shit like "means testing" and "work requirements" and "drug testing" just to act tough for the cameras and end up helping a lot less people.

These recent UBI experiments give me hope.

Show threadKatjaOct 6, 2023
@the_turtle I'm...very agnostic on the Dems right now, tbh.
I do keep hope that the way things are going is unsustainable, so eventually we will get the services we need.
Show threadThe TurtleOct 6, 2023

@Katja neither party has a good history when it comes to "drive it till it breaks, then we'll rebuild it right."

They both tend to rebuild things half-assed.

Show threadKatjaOct 7, 2023
@the_turtle ...I'm just gonna stand here on the hill of "none of them build anything, one of them just lets the people build more things than the other without pushing it all down".
Show threadNoctisEqui 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇪🇹🏳️‍🌈Oct 6, 2023

@Katja

I agree. I had a very bad break in my life that left me without any money. My SS is 200% of poverty line for single senior. I am also recently disabled. My only strategy is to stay home, get only the essentials, and eat less. I have found I can survive on 1 meal of beans a day if I keep busy outside. Trying to get some sort of remote work; even $50 more a month would help.I really wonder what my life was for, as the ‘fail’ column is way bigger than the ‘success’ one. I am home=success.

Show threadKatjaOct 6, 2023
@NoctisEqui 💗 It is very easy to think in terms of fail/success, as that is how capitalist society rates us.
Whereas we are human beings who shouldn't be judged for how useful a cog we are.
I am trying to hard to find joy within the boundaries of disability and to consider it enough to have done the best I can on any given day.
I hope you manage to find peace and work.
Show threadColinOct 6, 2023
@Katja
I'd heard alternatives that universal basic services should be available instead, but they wouldn't address the issues you outlined here. Additionally, why one or the other, when it's better to have one and the other?
I'd imagine without evidence that societies are more productive and happier with both?
Show threadKatjaOct 6, 2023
@XraySonoCol I would definitely argue for both. Housing, food, clothing, access to medical care -- those should be basic for everyone, and people shouldn't have to decide between medical bills or food or rent.
Show threadColinOct 14, 2023
@Katja Hard agree!
Show threadJohn Q McDonaldOct 6, 2023
@Katja You’ve just listed all the reasons our overlords oppose UBI
Show threadKatjaOct 7, 2023
@jqmcd Oh, I know. I know. I hate it.
Show threadAmpeliosOct 6, 2023

@Katja Especially since both traditional pensions and social security are essentially gone.

My retirement plan? I bought a 2-family house in my 20s (with blood money; my dad died young). As a method I don't recommend it.

Rent from one unit should keep a roof over my head. A roommate might defray eventual healthcare costs to an extent. But I also do not aspire to get old, let's put it that way.

It takes a sick society to drive us to this kind of calculus.

Show threadAmpeliosOct 6, 2023

@Katja And I mean, the house is paid off in full. (Again, blood money.) So I'm only counting on rent for taxes, utilities, and bare-minimum repairs. Not mortgage.

Even then, staring down the barrel of the rest of my life living that way is pretty grim.

Of course that's worst-case scenario and so many have it worse. But it shouldn't feel so precarious to live in a paid-off home! It shouldn't feel so precarious to ANYONE!

Show threadKatjaOct 7, 2023
@pelielios but repairs cost so much! Labor costs are rising, less and less people know how to do the work... and there are so many things that can go wrong with a house. But you know all that. It's just so painful to acknowledge how unsafe we are.
Show threadAmpeliosOct 7, 2023

@Katja Yes, the only things making it feasible for the house to pay for itself are

1) front-loading a lot of costs by doing a bunch of "every 30 years" repairs as soon as I bought it and

2) rent being obscenely high in my area. Which makes me kind of queasy but it's really set up as a young professionals' starter apartment.

My mom lives in it now but when I rented it, it was a finance bro & teacher couple. I don't feel bad fleecing anyone who gets Forbes magazine.

Show threadKatjaOct 7, 2023
@pelielios Hahahaha, no, that makes sense!
*sigh* I hear you about the being queasy about high rent, but then you also need to live...
Show threadFood not Bombs San FranciscoOct 6, 2023
@Katja Don't we need decommodification instead? Eg like libraries but for food and shelter too? Otherwise, won't UBI just be met with capital raising prices to make it ineffective?
Show threadKatjaOct 7, 2023
@foodnotbombs_sf You have a very good point, and yes, I am totally in support of having both UBI and universal basic services.
Show threadFood not Bombs San FranciscoOct 7, 2023
@Katja UBS 🤝 UBI 💯
Show threadMiakoda Oct 6, 2023
@Katja That last line is where I am... Autistic burnout... but I can't take the time I need to recover, and I'm already too disabled to make rent. I'm delaying the inevitable at this point
Show threadKatjaOct 7, 2023
@hellomiakoda That's so rough. I hope you manage to find a way, despite evil doing its best.
Show threadMiakoda Oct 7, 2023
@Katja
Learning things to mitigate over stim seems to have been a good starting place.
Let's hope I'm approved for disability bennies. Though, I'm hearing 2+ years... and I definitely don't have that left in me. 🤷🏼‍♀️
Show threadKatjaOct 7, 2023
@hellomiakoda *sending you all my best hopes and wishes* I hope it all comes through, fast.
I have also heard 2+ years, but miracles sometimes happen. I hope one does for you.
Show threadMiakoda Oct 7, 2023
@Katja
I am very sure the application process is designed so certain disabled people fail, and takes so long so many die waiting.
Show threadKatjaOct 8, 2023
@hellomiakoda ...I really feel that's "a feature, not a bug", yeah.
Show threadBarry COct 7, 2023
@Katja #WiseWords 👍👍
Show threadBrendan ConoboyOct 7, 2023
@Katja Ooh, yes, and moreover UBI supports a society in which consent can be authentic, free of coercion, because they always have the option to walk away.
Show threadRai Aren 🖖✨📚🇺🇦Oct 7, 2023
@Katja 💯