UK's Universal Credit, UBI, and a look at the future...

Recently, I watched Deutsche Welle's documentary, "Poverty in Britain - Why are millions of Brits so broke?" which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK68yyrKUOA&t=2s.

In this film, the UK's Universal Credit program is discussed and I couldn't help but wonder: is this a glimpse into life with a UBI?

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK68yyrKUOA&t=2s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Credit

https://www.vice.com/en/article/zn7gaj/ashton-under-lyne-jobcentre-protests-universal-credit

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/08/virtual-reality-religion-robots-sapiens-book

Links where I can be found: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2023/01/30/updates-housekeeping/

Need more? Email me: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/contact-causey/ 

Transcript

Welcome to the Causey consulting podcast. You can find us online anytime at CauseyConsultingLLC.com. And now, here's your host, Sara Causey.

Hello, Hello, and thanks for tuning in. In today's episode I want to talk about the UK is policy of Universal Credit, UBI, and what I think could potentially be a look into our future. I recently watched the Deutsche Welle documentary on YouTube titled, poverty in Britain, why are millions of Brits so broke? Naturally, I will drop a link to it so that you can see it for yourself. And I would encourage you to watch it for yourself and decide what you think it's less than 45 minutes long, but it is packed with information. It's a sad subject matter. It's not going to be sunshine and roses. But I think it's information that you need to see in the write up on YouTube, which I will read for you now. Just sit back and think about this, especially if you live in America. Think about if any of these circumstances if any of these descriptions seem a bit familiar to you see if they have the ring of familiar mainstream media narratives. Hmm, let's just read. Britain has a historically low unemployment rate of 3.6%. Yet, poverty levels are breaking all records. It's a paradoxical situation. almost 15 million Britons are considered poor these days, although there's almost full employment, the reason inflation and high energy costs. galloping inflation and a dramatic spike in energy costs in recent months are forcing millions of Britons into poverty. Wages fluctuate in an Uber iced working world of precarious employment conditions. Over the past 10 years. Beginning with David Cameron, the government has scaled back its support to vulnerable members of society. The result reduced life expectancy. Disadvantaged Britons are dying 10 years sooner than their wealthier compatriots. Victims of what's become known as the shit life syndrome, a life marked by poor living conditions disease and addiction. The documentary profiles people who have a job, but can still afford nothing from Blackpool in the West to Ashton-under-Lyne and Cumbria on the border with Scotland and quote, Wow, just wow. When I read the blurb for this, I'm like, Oh my God, of course, I'm gonna watch this. Look at the similarities historically low unemployment rate, almost full employment, like oh my God, what's going wrong? Well, inflation, galloping inflation, spike in energy costs. Okay. I give them credit for talking about the Uber arised working world of precarious employment conditions. I freelance, I own and operate my own business, I have made that decision for myself. I've been in corporate America, I've been out of corporate America. I had my dark night of the soul when I had to go back again and I hated it. I do this because I feel like this is the choice for me, may not be the most ideal choice. But it's the choice for me at this point in my life. It's the better choice than being stuck in a cubicle being away from my farm, sitting in a cube doing a job that I could easily and more productively do from home. I never liked the open air bullpen environment where you didn't have a proper office with a door or situations where yes, you would have an office but you were expected to keep an open door policy at all times. So even if your doctor or your gynecologist called and wanted to tell you about the results of your Pap smear. You had to keep the door open and you're like, oh my god, really? I hated it. So for me having this “uberized” situation of here today gone tomorrow, this contract might last for three months, it might not. It's it for me, it's a better choice than being trapped in a cube with no privacy. Again, I'm not telling you that it's ideal. I'm telling you, that's where I'm at this point in my life. And in a lot of ways, I feel like it's sad that corporate America has driven people into that situation. Because in so many ways going and sitting in the cube farm or having your own office might wait but being told don't ever shut the door. It's your job. What allows you set of choices. I also applaud them for pointing out that there are people working full time, but it's not enough. This documentary profiles people who have a job but can still afford nothing. I also applaud them for talking about what the doctors have called shit life syndrome, a life marked by poor living conditions, disease and addiction. One of the people in this documentary who has to choose between heat or eat there are times that night when the temperature in his house is in the 40s. That's brutal. He has to just walk around all the time with code on I assume he must sleep under a lot of blankets to try to survive. Hmm, yeah, I I have to tell you, this is not going to be an episode full of sunshine, roses, unicorns, Angel strumming their hearts. So if this is going to be upsetting to you, if you don't think you can handle some truth bombs, then you probably need to leave right now. Fair warning. in Blackpool, they profile a man who is running a Pizza Kitchen. And it's a place where people who are homeless or who do not have resources to provide a meal for themselves, they can come in and have a pizza. And I think if I understood correctly, it's operated on a system where somebody who's a paying customer can come in and have their pizza. And then they can also like pay it forward and donate a pizza to someone who can't afford to buy one. And he has a pretty good crowd of people showing up on a daily basis. He also purchases a double decker bus that he's going to try to turn into like a mobile homeless shelter. And he tells the story of going to the city and trying to get government resources, see if there was any funding or any grants available to him. And being told, No, not really good luck. And so you see this man who is desperate to help his community he himself has overcome a drug addiction and a life of crime and petty thieving, and he's trying to do something good for the community. And the government is basically telling him no good luck. It really looks like a man on a mission who's not getting any help. Outside of the community. It's like the community, these people that are homeless, and people who care about the homeless, they're the ones that are trying to pull resources together and help. And I think in a lot of ways, that's what this is coming down to if you think that the state, or you think that corporate America or Wall Street are coming to help you it's like, What planet are you on? It typically winds up being people that are in similar economic circumstances that all come together and help one another. In a town, a town or two over from where my farm is, there used to be one of those Pay What You Can charity restaurants, and I would go there, whenever I had the opportunity to if I was in that town on business, this was back before that, and all that. And I was working outside the home, if I had the opportunity to get by there, I would go and pay for my meal and put a little bit of money in the tip jar to help keep them going. They made it for three years. And then they had to shut down and they were several $1,000 behind on being able to pay the lease. And I guess whoever owned the building wasn't willing to work with them and they went out of business. So I applaud this man that he has been able to keep his Pizza Kitchen going against the odds, because you see these programs pop up in America and it seems like they just don't last that long. And it's not because American people it's not because the individual American people are not charitable or not generous. It's not that I think it really comes down to like the landlords and the banksters and people saying well, I've got to have my patent flesh like you're gonna pay me where I'm gonna kick you out of here and I don't give a damn that you're in a charity.

I don't you this is not going to be a sunshine and roses episode. from Blackpool they go to Ashton underline which is a community near Manchester they talk about how this area was hit hard by deindustrialization. They also talk about how their jobs center was one of the first in the UK to implement this program of Universal Credit. I sort of scratch my head thought that sounds a lot like UBI I wonder what this is. So one hop over just for a second to Wikipedia so that we can get a little handy working definition. Universal Credit is a United Kingdom social security payment is means tested and is replacing and combining six benefits for working age households with a low income, income related employment and Support Allowance income based Jobseeker's Allowance and income support, child tax credit and Working Tax Credit and housing benefit and award of UC is made up of different elements which become payable to the claimant if relevant criteria apply a standard allowance for singles or couples, child elements and disabled child elements for children in the household housing cost element childcare cost element, as well as elements for being a carer or having an illness or disability and therefore having limited capability to work. The new policy was announced in 2010 at the Conservative Party annual conference by the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, who said it would make the Social Security system fairer to claimants and taxpayers. At the same venue the welfare reform Minister Lord Freud emphasized the scale of their plan, saying it was a once in many generations reform, a government white paper was published in November 2010. A key feature of the proposed new benefit was that unemployment payments would taper off as the recipient moved into work, not suddenly stop, thus avoiding a cliff edge that was said to trap people in unemployment in quote, all of this sounds good. Whenever government policies pro come up, pop up, they always seem to be like, Hey, here's what's good about it. In corporate America does that too. Big Pharma does that, hey, look at the benefits of this. Then when you watch the commercial, it's like you might bleed profusely out of your ears, you might fall over dead, you might have a stroke. But hey, look at how happy everybody is in the commercial. They always put their best foot forward. So look, this sounds very compassionate. It sounds good. Hey, look, we're reforming it. We don't want people to go off a cliff. We don't want their benefits to just suddenly stop. We don't want them to be trapped and unemployment, we want to help them. That's always how it's advertised. And if you look at this as someone, not in the UK, it's like holy crap, this sounds like a lot of benefits. Like a lot of benefits. We don't get that sort of thing here in America we have there's unemployment insurance, but it doesn't pay very much and some of these other things about only here's a credit for this and an element for that. It sounds good from the outside looking in. Now on Wikipedia when we scroll down to criticism we find Universal Credit has been and is subject to many criticisms, Louise Casey fears recipients could become homeless and destitute. According to official figures. 24% of new claimants wait over six weeks for full payment, and many get behind with their rent. Research by Southwark Council suggests that rent arrears continue when tenants have been on Universal Credit, a long time in quote. So perhaps there's more to the story. In the Deutsche Avella documentary, we meet a woman named Charlotte Hughes, who has been protesting outside the Job Center and handing out leaflets to try to help people for several years. There's an article about this on vice.com It is several years old. The article is titled there have been protests outside this job center every week for two years. At this point, it's been more than that because Charlotte is still protesting. The byline reads Ashton underline is pioneering the government's benefit reforms but the claimant it deals with our anything but happy. In this we read Tameside against the cuts, has been protesting outside Ashton underlying Jobs Center every Thursday for nearly two years. As the first area in the country to pilot Universal Credit, which unites six benefits into one back in 2013. The Greater Manchester market town has seen a fair few harrowing tales. claimants with autism having their benefits stopped multiple times despite not comprehending why an ex soldier who'd served in Afghanistan going on a crime spree so that he'd have a roof over his head after his housing benefit was docked. Then last year, a man walked into the center, doused himself and petrol and threatened to set himself ablaze are claimants around these parts right when they nicknamed in Duncan Smith's flagship reform universal cruelty. Ashton underlined is a trial area for inward conditionality where claimants who are working up to 35 hours a week and claiming low wage top ups and other benefits are forced to attend Job Center interviews and apply for second jobs or face penalties. When I visit, I discover a system so harsh that even the job center workers could be hit by the same sanctions they impose. It's 10am When I joined the nine person strong picket with ages today ranging from 32 to 72. Charlotte Hughes, who's campaigning recently was recently praised by Ken Loach is distributing sanctions advice and tips, leaflets. Here you go love she tells one person entering the building. This will help you with she crinkles, her nose disdainfully that lot in there, a siege mentality has developed between the protesters and the Job Center staff with the former alleging to have faced intimidation from security guards. Now the next bit I'm going to read does have some colorful language in it. If the F word offends you just go ahead and skip ahead. If you feel like your Tinder ears can handle it.

I had barely been there for 15 minutes when a man marches out of the center, fucking arseholes. He rages. They're all fucking arseholes. They don't listen. They're looking at me like I have Scrounger tattooed on my forehead. Charlotte who started the weekly demonstrations after her then six months pregnant daughter was sanctioned, approaches him to assist. They've told me not to talk to you lot outside, he says wearily. He's the first of many happy customers over the next two hours Christine a septuagenarian veteran of green ham common has seen quite a few of these in her time. A man told me last week how he was called in for a work review. And for every question he answered, Yes, the advisor ticked No. It's about getting people off benefits by any means. We know they have targets. The DWP have denied this accusation. It would sound like paranoia. Were it not for the increasing numbers of whistleblowers who've claimed job seeker advisors and performance managed by the number of people. They managed to get off the statistics on pain of an internal disciplinary assessment. The word sanction is like Candyman among the people hear, it elicits shivers, whispering or you might tempt fate, unsurprising when they affect one in six claimants and are often applied for bizarre arbitrary reasons. Struggling with a pram a 20 Something woman enters the center before emerging minutes later, her face looks desperate. See, they've missed me around again. She says bursting into tears. They've given me the wrong time again and sent me away again. It's intimidation all the time. It never stops. It's constant. Two jobs center workers come out of the entrance. This is rare apparently they usually favor the back door to avoid a walk of shame through the protesters are those leaflets for us as well enquires one because we're on low wages. I work 16 hours a week. They're coming for us next we're the next to be sanctioned when we're all moved on to Universal Credit. Oh, you better know that. At least were going to be allowed to go to another job center from the one they work out to be sanctioned. She adds isn't that lovely? In a statement a spokesperson for the DWP said for the first time ever we are helping people on in work benefits to progress in their careers and make the most of the flexibilities and increased childcare support that Universal Credit brings. This is a revolutionary approach and we are currently running trials across the country to ensure we get it right. You see claimants who work at the DWP will get the same support as everyone else. It seems that's precisely what's worrying them. Every Christmas Tameside against the the cuts holds a memorial service outside and lays a wreath for those who have died as they see it as a result of the benefit system. They read out names such as Linda Wooten who died just nine days after being told she was fit for work with her death attributed to lung and heart problems, hypertension and chronic renal failure. Or Stephanie Bottrell who after paying 80 pounds per month for Bedroom Tax, could no longer afford heating and lived off 10 Custard. She walked in front of a lorry figures from the government last year revealed that 80 people per month are dying after being declared fit for work, therefore losing their sickness benefit known as Employment Support Allowance or ESA a 59 year old woman gingerly approaches Charlotte she speaks quietly she's embarrassed, disabled yet decreed fit to work. She has lost her right to ESA. She is challenging the decision. Half of all ESA appeals are successful until then her only recourse is to claim Jobseeker's Allowance. She the advisor asked, what work can you do? I said I wasn't sure as I have arthritis in both arms and agoraphobia. I'm having to lie and say I'm capable of doing 16 hours of work and I'm clearly not. I haven't gotten anything to live on. If I can't if I apply for job seekers. It's like I'm admitting I'm fit for work, but if I don't, I can't eat. It's a catch 22 She the advisor spoke to me like a piece of dirt. I've been physically sick all morning at the thought of coming here. It's humiliating enough with everything they put you through with the medicals then you're treated like a fraud. It's easy to dismiss benefit claimants as shirkers it's more difficult when you meet them and hear their stories. Over two hours I witnessed people reduced to emotional rubble and impotent rage, disabled people unable to even open the door to the Job Center and the overwhelming view that under its benign green insignia and blacked out windows Job Center. Less isn't a pathway to work. It's a cul de sac of cruelty. People say I'm obsessed with this says Charlotte, but I can't walk away because if I do I know vulnerable people will suffer in quote. It's pretty heavy, isn't it? In the Deutsche Avella documentary, there's a man who comes outside the center and says that he's had his benefits suspended because he missed a phone call. So I want you to think about that. Because we are hearing these rumblings and these stirrings about wouldn't it be nice if we just had UBI? Would it? Think about the quote that's been variously attributed to different people throughout the past? I don't know, 50 or 60 years. Any government big enough to give you everything you want? is big enough to take it all away? Do you really want to be completely and solely dependent on the state? Is that what you really want? long pause there so you can think about it. Your Benefits get taken away because you missed an effing phone call. Wow. Now I'm sure I'm totally sure. Here it comes down to give parity theory. Get ready. The whiny Neo lives it won't be the Neo cons on this one. Now, if I say anything about the Orange Man, or anything like that, that's I'll get it from them. But on this one, this will be

good conspiracy theory you think the moon is made out of key? We were okay.

Sure. I've linked to this article before I will do it again. The meaning of life in a world without work. This appeared on The Guardian and it was written by Yuval Noah Harare, was published on Monday, May 8 2017. It's not a flipping conspiracy theory, go and read the freaking article. I'll read it for yourself. It's not like I made this up. I concocted it I wrote it myself. And I'm trying to pass it off like fake news. This man wrote it. He wrote it himself. Let me read. Most jobs that exist today might disappear within decades. As artificial intelligence outperforms humans in more and more tasks, it will replace humans in more and more jobs. Many new professions are likely to appear virtual world designers for example. But such professions will probably require more creativity and flexibility. And it is unclear whether 40 year old unemployed taxi drivers or insurance agents will be able to reinvent themselves as virtual world designers try to imagine a virtual world created by an insurance agent, exclamation point. And even if the ex insurance agent somehow makes the transition into a virtual world designer, the pace of progress is such that within another decade, he might have to reinvent himself yet again, the crucial problem isn't creating new jobs, the crucial problem is creating new jobs that humans perform better than algorithms. Consequently, by 2050, a new class of people might emerge the useless class people who are not just unemployed, but unemployable. The same technology that renders humans useless might also make it feasible to feed and support the unemployable masses through some scheme of universal basic income. The real problem will then be to keep the masses occupied and content, people must engage in purposeful activities where they go crazy. So what will the useless class do all day? And quote? Yeah, so we can feed and support these unemployable masses on universal basic income. It's right there in the article, read it for yourself, and you can barely barely read the article. Get off your Neal live ass and go read the article for yourself. So I'm watching this documentary. And it's like, okay, so Universal Credit seems to really be going swimmingly. How do you think a scheme of UBI would be carried out? Do you really think it would be any different? Do you really think that it's coincidental that this program was piloted has come up with several years ago during a conservative administration, mind you. It's piloted out hasn't been going well, people have been talking about getting behind on their rent, they've had their benefits cut off there. According to this article on bias. There are people alleging that it has driven participants to suicide. But see, then, if I get on here, and my tinfoil hat and my tinfoil suit on I talk about things like the useless classes UBI you've got nothing to do for be happy. There's too many useless eaters. Well, that's just a conspiracy theory. You're you're going beyond the pale now and I'm like, No, I'm really just sitting here, rationally connecting the dots. It doesn't seem to be that big of a leap to me. When you look at the consequences of this Universal Credit Program, and the way that people are treated, and then you look at the positions talking about shit life syndrome, does that seem coincidental to you? Do you think they and maybe you do, maybe you do. Maybe you think that Wall Street and big pharma, and the cronies and the banksters and these investors, they really do care about you, they really do have your best interest at heart. Maybe I can't, I can't say it with a straight face. But you know, maybe that's what you think. It seems to me that the preponderance of evidence here is telling me that they put these people on the Universal Credit. And they make them jump through a bunch of flaming poodle hoops. And it further cements more poverty, more suffering more of this shit life syndrome. I don't think that's a coincidence. I'm sorry if you don't see it that way. But for me to make this make sense. I just don't think it's a coincidence gang. I don't. One of the things that Charlotte says point blank in this Deutsche Avella documentary is right around the 1625 minute mark, if you want to go and watch it for yourself. She says point blank, all they care about is you doing what they tell you to do. So I want to ask you, specially people, maybe of the younger generations, I'm not trying to get into generational clickbait here. But it does seem that millennials and Gen Zers are more friendly to this idea of UBI is not the world that you want to live in. You either jump through these flaming poodle hoops to get your check, or we will cut you off, we will throw your ass out on the ice of DACA. And we don't give a shit. What happens out there. If you die, you're decreasing the surplus population anyway. So good luck. Is that the world you want to live in? It's not the world I want to live in. That's scary as hell to me. around the 1720 mark in the documentary, they said on this Deutsche Avella documentary that it's estimated 1.5 million people have been pushed into poverty since Universal Credit started. But again, if I were to say, Well, I mean, that doesn't really seem to be a coincidence. It kind of sort of seems like that's probably part of the plan. You guys you vote on not saying then that's a conspiracy theory. You're just not Mall. You're not the cuckoo bird. Okay, the proof is in the pudding. They also talk about the meteoric rise of food banks. They show charity organizations giving out not only sacks of food to the homeless, but bags of food to people who are housed that have some ability to cook they try to save the things where no cooking is required for the homeless and then things where maybe some food prep is involved for people that are housed in some way. They also have toiletry kits, and they talk about how one in five Britons can no longer afford those basic toiletry items. But you expect me to think that somehow if we all just go into our hovels, and we live in virtual reality, and hey, we don't have to work anymore. There, that's our puppy treat, we don't have to work anymore, we can get our universal basic income check that's paid to us through a cbdc and we can eat our cricket burgers, and then everything will just be better. What? There's even this very sad scene where a food bank receives a donation because a man had died. And his wife, his widow, and his family had such an overabundance of food that they donated the funeral food to the food bank so that homeless people would have something to eat. I applaud them rather than that food going to waste or getting thrown in the garbage at least it went to feed somebody but my God, we're we're talking about a scenario where funeral food has to be donated because people are hungry. That is so dystopian and sad. In the Deutsche Avella documentary also, there's an interview with David Cameron, I think from they said 2021 and they wanted to talk to him about the Universal Credit the explosion of food banks, and they point out how several days before he sat down for the interview, he tweeted out pictures of himself volunteering at a food bank and Like, Oh my God, that's like so what politicians do corporate CEOs to because like six of one half a dozen or the other but like, there you go, perfect PR attempt. Whenever he's confronted about the food banks and the economy, we he gives what I would say is a typical politicians answer. And it doesn't matter if it's a politician in Europe or a politician in the United States, it sounds like the same exact script writer could have come up with the script that he's reading from, well, I grew the economy, I took down the budget deficit, I created 2 million jobs and a million more businesses, he gets into the economics. And if so it would be here in America, if an American politician, look at the job market, look at the stock market, look at the tax cuts, we're just going to ignore all over the place. And so it goes, nothing ever changes, we just get the same old hot air and hopium talking points. Meanwhile, it's like somebody that starving out in the street doesn't give a damn about the stock market. They also don't give a damn about the job market either. If you're sitting there telling them 3.6% unemployment rate to legit open jobs for every one unemployed person.

If those statistics are highly manipulated, and absolutely full of shit, it's not going to make any difference to anybody's life. But you're expected to swallow it hook line and sinker and think that all of these jobs that were supposedly created, were legit jobs. Now, they're not going to tell you that most of them were part time jobs that didn't pay a living wage and didn't offer any benefits. Now, they're not going to tell you that we're freelance type jobs, where maybe you have to cobble together for five projects at a time and work 80 hours a week to keep pace with inflation or to be able to make it through a feast or famine cycle. They're not going to tell you that they're just going to stand back and say 2 million Jones, 1 million new businesses. Give myself a pat on the back because I'm so great. And we get some of the blame game too. Because the interviewer is talking about poverty increasing and David Camp David Cameron's like, no, that's just not true. Yes, there's been an increase in food bank usage, but it's just because of the reporting. The previous administration did not allow job centers to refer impoverished people to food banks, because they thought it would look bad it would have bad publicity wouldn't read well, so it's not really that there's been an increase. It's just you're more aware of it. Now. There's been more reporting there's been more referrals to food banks, so it's not really an increase. It's just more publicity around people using food. Same thing, same freakin thing. You taught English though. Same thing that you would get from an American politician. It wasn't my administration. It was the other guys. It wasn't our party. It was the other party. It wasn't the donkeys it was the elephants. Oh, it wasn't the elephants it was the donkeys bump bump, bump. Same shit different day. So let me ask you again in a different way. Are these the kinds of idiots in my opinion that you would want controlling you? Would you want them saying you're not going to have a job? You're a member of a useless class, you're a useless eater now. And we'll provide you with your cricket burgers and an apartment and some universal basic income. Now you got to answer the phone every time it rings you got to do what we say when and how we say it. Are these the kind of people that you want controlling you determining everything about how you live, really. They show people who are victims of the shit life syndrome that have very difficult and inadequate living conditions. I talked before about the man who had the heat or eat decision and there were times that his home would be 40 some odd degrees at night. I don't know how he was making it. They show a doctor at a free clinic but they're only allowed to spend like 10 minutes per patient. And the patient is only allowed to ask about one health condition. So if someone comes in there and they have let's say strep throat and pneumonia at the same time, they're only allowed to ask about one of those conditions. And I guess hopefully the doctor has to prescribe an antibiotic that would kill both of those things. It's a mess. It is really a mess. And I think those of us in America I mean, it's it's easy to point the finger at the United States on a lot of things. We seem to get bullied and demonized about a lot of different issues. And I get that believe me I do. That's like people when they think of obesity, they think of America Call me straightaway. Even though you can look at obesity rates around the world and see that they're climbing, we still get the blame for it. I watched another documentary not long ago about how Mexico has surpassed America in terms of its obesity rate. 75% of the population there is classified as either overweight or obese. And they've started putting warning labels on the food like warning, excessive sugar, excessive salt, excessive fat. I get it. It's easy to just Oh, America, America is obese. America's decadent. Everything that's wrong is all about America. But it's like no, wait a minute. Now. There are some real western world issues. It's not only happening in America, there are things that are happening across the western world. And in watching this documentary. It's just it's difficult to contemplate. We have long wait times here in America for health care. I don't think I've ever been to a doctor's appointment, where I was told you can only ask about one health condition at a time. But the health the health care system in America is not what it used to be. It's just not. You think about shit life syndrome, people being in impoverished conditions, not having adequate food, not having adequate medical care, not having adequate safe shelter. But if you say well, I mean, you know, there does seem to be a plan towards depopulation. That's conspiracy theory. If you say people are suffering from shit life syndrome, and that's terrible, and we need to do something about it. That's virtuous, you're allowed to say that as well, you should be. But if you then say, it was feels pretty orchestrated, to me kind of seemed like maybe this didn't happen by accident. That's when you get into the tinfoil hat. I highly encourage you please watch this documentary for yourself. And if you have been of the mindset, maybe it would just be better. Maybe it would be easier, maybe my life would be more complete. If I could just have UBI I wouldn't have to work anymore. We wouldn't have to plan for retirement, we could just sit in an apartment somewhere and have a check every month and it would be paradise. I would humbly ask you to watch this documentary and think about whether you still believe that after you've seen it, stay safe, stay sane. And I will see you in the next episode.

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