Quote Originally Posted by Son-of-Liberty View Post
I don't think it can work. The Native American population in Canada has all their needs met by the government as compensation for stealing their land. They are the least productive, least literate, highest drug abuse, lowest life expectancy group. Of course their are exceptions but not that many compare to the overall group. They also have their own land that is tax exempt. With all these advantages you would think they would be productive.

The few I have met that are productive don't live on the reserve and may not get the full benefits that the others do. I worked for one that was a really good guy, smart and hard working but he did not have a treaty card for some reason and generally despised the behavior of the other natives.

If someone gave me $2900 a month I wouldn't really work at all, why bother? All my basic needs would be met. I might tinker around 2-3 hours a day but would probably only generate a few thousand dollars a year. I would move out far into the boonies where the $2900 would go much further and buy land and grow my own food. I would live very well but without adding much value to society.

However when someone is brought up under these circumstances and never learned to work hard first place they basically become useless trash with no work ethic or ambition. To drown out their boredom and low self esteem they resort to self destructive behavior like alcohol and drug abuse. They don't value the gift they are given and squander it.

You've heard the stories about the people that win the lotto and then a few years later are broke.
This is true, we tend to have the inherent flaw that we must be kept busy otherwise we just self-destruct. That's a problem which I don't know how to fix. It's similar I think to the problem that people want to be slaves and need leaders.

In the end it might come down to one of these instead of a free basic income:

The Minimum Wage Machine

http://i.imgur.com/yNVprhg.png

This machine allows anyone to work for minimum wage for as long as they like. Turning the crank on the side releases one penny every 4.97 seconds, for a total of $7.25 per hour. This corresponds to minimum wage for a person in New York.