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- Universal basic income is in vogue with many trials underway and people like Elon Musk touting it.
- Personal finance guru Dave Ramsey criticized UBI as "straight out of the Karl Marx playbook."
- He said unconditional cash grants deterred people from working and reaping the benefits of success.
Universal basic income is having a moment with trials launching across the globe, promising early test results, and the likes of Elon Musk singing its praises.
But others recoil violently at the idea of continually doling out cash to everyone in a society, with no restrictions on how the money's spent and no need for it to be paid back.
"This is straight out of the Karl Marx playbook — this is not out of the Adam Smith playbook," Dave Ramsey said about UBI on "The Ramsey Show" last summer.
The personal-finance guru and radio star was referring to the co-author of "The Communist Manifesto" and the author of "The Wealth of Nations" — two men regarded as the fathers of communism and capitalism, respectively.
"If I thought with my 40 years-plus in the financial world that this was helpful to people, I would be for it even though I'm a staunch capitalist," Ramsey said.
But he ruled out a regular, no-strings-attached paycheck as a solution to people's financial struggles and broader economic inequality.
He argued that it would deter people from working and realizing the personal rewards that come from helping themselves and achieving their own prosperity.
"Your best quality of life is when your character is increased with grit, discipline, callouses. The ability to overcome obstacles gives you much more joy than the dull hum of communism — it puts you to sleep," he said.
Ramsey added: "If the welfare system worked, people would be sprinting out of these government funded ghettos into a wonderful life, and instead they've set up camp there generationally."
Although he emphasizes his compassion for the impoverished, based on his years of helping people with their financial problems and parsing data, he doesn't believe handouts are good for them.
Instead, Ramsey made the case that letting people eat what they kill provides a stronger incentive for them to better their lives — almost certainly an analogy for lowering taxes: "You don't get that with a universal stupid-butt communism stipend."
The Ramsey Solutions founder and CEO pointed to his personal story as an example of how America's capitalist system gives people the best chance of improving their lot in life.
"I know a guy that was so stupid that he filed bankruptcy because he was so bad at handling money, and he's made millions of dollars teaching people to live on less than they make," Ramsey said. "What a country, oh my gosh."
It's worth underscoring that many proponents of UBI disagree that it eliminates the desire or need to work. Instead they see it as a social safety net that allows people to take risks, such as having kids or quitting their jobs to start a business, without having to worry about paying their rent or buying groceries.