California city on the cusp of instituting communism, devaluing citizens

By A. Dru Kristenev —— Bio and Archives February 7, 2018

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How the American Dream has cheapened to the point of believing a $500 a month giveaway will save a bankrupt city is outside the realm of reason. Yet this is what the disordered mind of a California city’s mayor is promoting. Last year, we heard the resurgence of a communist-based concept, “universal basic income” infiltrate the discussions about the budget when it came before Congress. Touted as compassionate, the idea of guaranteeing everyone a less than livable pittance per month or year is anything but. Despite that, what I dubbed “universal basic poverty” is now being promoted as a golden experiment for the City of Stockton.

Giveaway becomes an entitlement that breeds bitterness and idleness

Granted, it’s common knowledge that free enterprise economics are considered passé by the progressive educators populating colleges for the last forty years. However, the implementation of so-called modern socialistic precepts has proven to be disastrous over and over. Each and every time a government usurps the economy to dole out wages, goods and healthcare (though it’s hardly worth calling it that), the result has been what was mentioned above – universal poverty and the disappearance of real goods and services. Let me qualify that, the diminishing of food and necessities for everyone except the elite who institute the changes. They always manage to live in luxury while the population suffers (Note Kim Jong Un and Nicolás Maduro for easy examples.) Mayor Michael Tubbs says he received his inspiration from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. but this isn’t 1967 and most of Dr. King’s words have been redefined 50 years after his passing. More likely, this erroneous reasoning derives from public education K through college, democrat ideologues, government subsidized “entrepreneurs” or social media gurus. Every one of them is operating under flawed logic based on their limited social, educational and economic experience. Even geniuses in their own field, like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, have become misguided in their thinking because of experiential limitations such as assuming social media can replace face-to-face communication or government grants can replace open-market funding. Ultimately, the skewed thinking that giving away $500 a month to, well, everyone makes no sense. When Dorian Warren, who has pledged $1 million to the effort says that a basic income adds to a person’s self-worth, he has it completely backwards. From the first experiment of communal living by the Massachusetts Bay colonists to present day welfare recipients, it’s been proven that receiving something for nothing provides… nothing. Nothing in increased productivity; nothing in better developed self-esteem; nothing in self-determination or ambition; nothing in benefiting the community because the giveaway becomes an entitlement that breeds bitterness and idleness.

Freebies don’t encourage free thinking and they shut down a free market, but then, maybe that’s the idea

There are innumerable ways by which people can work and receive remuneration. Assuming that the only ways of work are the recognized ways of the past also doesn’t help the economic situation. Not everyone can exist by physical labor, though it will always be a needed commodity, and not everyone is equipped to make a career in the service industry or tech market, but everyone has a gift or talent that can be applied to work and it’s time that education accepted that. Incoherently, education models stress teaching to the strengths of an individual (such as mentioned above) yet in the end, it’s become a mantra that every student must attend college, which is complete, unadulterated bunk. Not to mention totally opposite of the teaching philosophies used to train teachers. Citizens are not impressed with a $500 base pay. (Certainly Nancy Pelosi wouldn't be if she considers $1000 "crumbs.") Some will work for more, because they have initiative, but most will sink to the level of trying to make things work within the limited means rationed to them. And that is the core of the dissatisfaction fueling the AntiFa folly that is burning buildings and filling the streets with violence. Even when they win, they act as if they lose. The response in Philadelphia after the Eagles swept the Super Bowl is evidence enough. Freebies don’t encourage free thinking and they shut down a free market, but then, maybe that’s the idea.