Back

@PhoenixSerenity @freediverx

we get other disability benefits that we would lose with UBI. it can also stagnate just like minimum wage, welfare, and disability have all done. most people could now not live on $3000/mo because at least 50% of that would go to rent, but more likely 75%, which already raises another problem of how much is it really just a landlord subsidy?

14 years of begging politicians both for a higher minimum wage and UBI didn't move the needle. it existed for about thirty seconds then was yanked out from under the people relying on it.

i think we might have try a different course of action. there are many effective ways which have been used before to raise material conditions, and begging the ruling class to solve the problems their power causes has never been one of them.

@burnitdown @freediverx
What other disability benefits would be lost in BC under UBI? I'm not aware of any & haven't been alerted to any by our local Action Committee for People With Disabilities in Victoria. I used to do paralegal work for them in the early 2000s.

In BC, people who get provincial disability benefits receive less than $2000/month. People cannot survive on that.

@PhoenixSerenity @freediverx

idk about BC, but in Ontario we get prescription, dental, and eye coverage. it's not great coverage for the latter two, nor does it pay out enough. but it's a stable, established system that needs improvement, not replacement with a thing that gets yanked out from under us on a whim.

material conditions don't change until people get fed up, refuse their labour, throw sand in the gears, putting pressure on the capitalists to give us our due wealth. letting them steal our wealth and then demanding some back through bureaucratic channels is not a recipe for victory.

@PhoenixSerenity I don’t see UBI as a replacement for disability support or a replacement for a push to change/improve the current healthcare systems, but rather the base minimum for everyone no matter their health conditions, employment or relationship status.
If anyone says it *is* a replacement then it’s not the kind of Universal Basic Income I’m interested in. If $3000/month is the amount then that’s what it needs to be plus disability accommodations.

I totally see your point @burnitdown about knocking on the bureaucratic door of the so-called ruling class. Many people already don’t work but can’t get disability benefits and don’t have much energy to throw sand in the gears. It’s a limbo of poverty.
I don’t think there’s a perfect solution. UBI might even just be a temporary one but cultural shifts towards community care take a long time and many people can’t wait.

@stephaniepixie @PhoenixSerenity

i think it will be a case of "you get one or the other, not both", since i already can't get the national dental care due to already collecting ODSP. they like to fuck us around like this. it's almost as if capitalists profit from abusing disabled people or something. we are surplus labour, they do not value our labour at all but still profit from our misery.

a lot of harm was caused by Doug Ford ripping out UBI from the people receiving it. one person had given up alcohol, after being an alcoholic for years. if there is anything would trigger a recovering alcoholic back into using, that would do it.

there's no perfect solution, but the longer we keep saying we can't do it, the longer it won't get done, the longer their power will last.