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I ran across this article today, and it really spoke to me because I’m having some of this struggle in my own life. I’m retired, and I hate it. I need some meaningful work, both to supplement my retirement income (which eliminates volunteering for now), and to give me back a sense of some kind of purpose.

Anyway, the article describes the lessons learned from Marienthal, Austria in 1932. Marienthal suffered a catastrophic factory closure in 1932. The factory employed nearly 100% of the male residents. So when it closed, the financial blow to the local economy was catastrophic. Austria had very liberal social welfare policies at the time, so the whole town went on the public dole and received a "universal basic income". The social transformation was also catastrophic. The people weren’t starving or homeless, but the cultural fabric fell apart as the men of the city lost their sense of purpose. With all the time they had available to spend with their children, the opposite happened. They spent less time with their kids than they had when they worked. Whereas they previously had a lot of civic pride, instead of using that time to improve things, they let the town fall fall into disrepair. Etc., etc.

Anyway, it’s a fascinating read about an actual case study of the effects of universal basic income. And, as the author points out, sociology students in college are ALL taught about this study, so they have NO excuse when they try to push plans like this off on the rest of us. He makes the successful argument that plans like this essentially inventory people, destroying their dignity in the process, and that this is what liberalism has done to black Americans since the 1960s.

https://www.hennessysview.com/2016/08/1 ... n-america/