The Elite's Unspoken Case Against UBI

(NOTE: Author is writing from the point of view of a fictional opponent to UBI. Author is deeply in favor of UBI and values all human life equally. This piece is an exercise to stimulate new hypotheses around societal dynamics as we enter a new era of extreme automation. I will leave it to you, the reader, to decide how plausible it is that these hidden ideologies exist — as laid out below in theoretical parody — and what to do about it.)

Why People Like Me Reject Universal Basic Income.

We may be tempted to think that Universal Basic Income is the answer to our economic woes, but have you ever stopped to consider the elite's deepest, darkest secrets about why we reject UBI? It's not about the money or the productivity or the numbers. We know the numbers work and have seen the empirical evidence in the pilots showing UBI makes people more productive. Instead, our objection is about something far more sinister: preserving the propagation of superior genes.

This motivation is not entirely conscious in my class of people but is deeply rooted in our evolutionary instincts. The fear response of seeing the weak propagate and stabilize, thereby becoming suitors for the fittest mates, is reflexively disdainful to those of us who find ourselves on the higher end of the social strata or expect to be on that higher end someday playing by the current rules.

UBI would weaken the natural selection process and ultimately lead to a decrease in the quality of our species by propagating inferior genes. This is why we elite firmly reject the idea of Universal Basic Income and will continue to do so.

I am one of these elites who will level with you: We believe that a Universal Basic Income would be an unfortunate mistake that would do nothing to perpetuate our species. On the contrary, it would hinder natural selection and lead to an overpopulated world with too many eaters and breathers and insufficient contributors.

It would also reduce the importance of financial success as a mating signal. This removal of financial stability as an essential heuristic for genetic fitness would perpetuate weaker genes and reduce our species' intelligence, competence, charisma, and beauty.

Furthermore, the world would become increasingly more crowded with no discernible benefit to the fitter element of humanity.

The propagation of superior genes is an essential part of maintaining the quality of the human race. Capitalism has traditionally been the engine of eugenics, where those with financial success attain power, choosing the fittest women according to physical beauty.

People must understand that capitalism and competition is not just about economic freedom and making money but also a way of conveying fitness through the generations, finding a suitable mate, and propagating superior genes. Without this, our species will inevitably decline in quality.

What will likely happen is that if a massive population, i.e., an enormous labor and consumer market, is no longer needed as a backdrop for the fittest among us to broadcast our fitness, the best course of action, and indeed the one you can expect all elites will take, is an ethic of POPULATION REDUCTION.

We elite will succeed because you unfit masses will fail to unite and use the power of the vote to protect yourselves from this fate.

If you, the unfortunate, the have-nots, the workers, and the unfit could all get aligned; you could easily overpower the elite and do so peacefully, simply through the power of the vote.

But you will fail to figure out how to achieve this alignment. After all, you're too fragmented, too easily swayed by propaganda and wedge issues, too obedient to biblical work ethics, and too convinced that you will eventually join the ranks of the elite.

These cognitive mistakes are the recipe for your collective demise, and we, the elite, are counting on you to remain unaligned until it's too late for you.

In short, you have the power and the numbers but will lose; the elite will automate labor, make you obsolete, and the culling process will begin soon.

It won't come in any obvious form, not right away. No extermination camps. Just a slow sense of deprivation as your kind withers away. When you attempt to revolt, you will be weakened and weary, and we will pick you off in the name of justice and self-defense.

This process is already happening; it's beginning and too late for you to stop it. You might have had a future if you elected Andrew Yang in 2020. Your failure of imagination and fear of risk will cause your demise.

We, the elite, can always count on your kind to fail to take smart, innovative risks, which is why you are in your class in the first place, and why you will never vote for Yang or the Forward Party, or anything that could save you.