Welcome to a new episode of Real Talk from OSYL. In this episode, we answer 3 questions regarding our mental health and how it may be impacted during the pandemic. The discussion is an open-ended one, as we share and acknowledge each other respectfully. We continue to show solidarity and support, for we all have our own demons to fight.
Though this can be a breezy short read, there are a couple ways to listen to the podcast. For the audio portion of the podcast, you can listen below or download directly here: https://realtalkwithosyl.buzzsprout.com/
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Times are hard during the covid-19 pandemic. Some find themselves lucky to remain able to keep a steady job, even more so to work remotely from their offices, and others find themselves temporarily out of work, or still reeling from the negative effects of the economy during this time. As government assistance is requested for at an all time high, we await another round of stimulus checks to be approved. At the time of this writing, the government is close to approving another round of stimulus checks (2nd of the 2020 year). While we wait for it to show up in our bank accounts via direct deposit, or mailed to our addresses, we wonder what if it was a normal thing for us to receive government assistance the likes of a universal income--for instance, every U.S citizen will receive $1000 per month, unconditionally. While we debate this topic, and philosophize how it can both be beneficial and unsustainable, we really don't have any right or wrong answers for this theory. Note we say theory, because we are all U.S citizens who have not personally experienced this universal income. In this episode, we join our special guest, Ally, in discussing the topic on universal income. She joins the usuals, Tyler, Steven, and Andrew (missing Zvon), and they all have fun philosophizing over this episode's fire round question. This question is: If every citizen in the US was to receive $1000 a month, unconditionally, and no changes to the current living conditions, how do you think society will react? How do you think you would personally react?
So, imagine we do get a universal income of $1000 every month, unconditionally. Some of us theorize that it will impact different groups of people in various ways. With no right or wrong answer, we are just discussing how it can impact us on a personal level, and how we think it may impact everyone else. For some of us, it comes down to financial literacy. Though we feel in today's age that $1000 a month, free, may not always amount to much to cover all the expenses. However, if we were to continue our lives and economy that we are currently in, that extra $1000 can go a long way in terms of our financial wealth. Taking financial literacy into account, some of us would welcome the extra $1000 with open arms and allow it to help us do so much more in advancing our financial lives. For others, they welcome that, but are also embracing the idea that this would help a lot of the lower income households. For instance, an extra $1000 can help many families cover the basic necessities (i.e. food), and allowing their earned income to do more for their families than take care of the basic essentials. Though others can appreciate it, on a macro scale, the question that begs is that how would this become sustainable from a structural perspective. We are debating this scenario as a pipe-dream, however, if it was to be enacted, what will the government do to keep it functional. Would this mean that other existing governmental assistance programs will be cut? Overall, it is already seen that the government already prints money to print it and stabilize the capitalist economy with debt. This can be just another one of those programs, but would that mean we would live in a more controlled state?
I for one, would embrace the idea of having a universal income. It would bring a significant amount of money to my life. Though the $1000 alone would not supplement my current debt to income ratio, but if all was steady, the extra $1000 would help me further in achieving financial wealth. Most of us can agree, and who knows how others will deal with it, but we hope that it makes us all wiser and wealthier for it.