Thumbs up! =)

First, a technical note: the code running this site allows different text format filters for different user roles. And it seems that I had anonymous user restricted to "plain text"-formatting, where html tags aren't allowed. Also, when setting up the site, I started up tidying the looks and disabled the text format selector. Now I changed the settings so that "filtered HTML" is allowed also for anonymous users, and I (temporarily) re-introduced the format selector. Hehe, there is a lot work with configuration, decoration and styling the site, and I'd like to do that work, but all so often I just end up doing other things instead=)

Then a couple of comments:

I also do like the idea that the comment section is alive, and sparks discussion. I think it is a sign of a friendly atmosphere, that people feel free to express their opinions. And, since I've myself written a couple of blog posts about my own insecure feelings about expressing my own thoughts, I think it is perfectly fine for readers to also post their long uncensored comments. Hehe, and for me, it has been so that when I've written even in those moments when I feel "maybe what I write is stupid, wrong, and too much text, but the heck I write anyway", that anxiety has been slowly melting away. And then, without the anxiety, it also becomes easier to write in a shorter and more focused manner. But, to get there, one sometimes needs to just start with typing out all the half-processed flow of thoughts. So, dear readers, let's keep going this way =)

I also root for Unconditional Basic Income - bundled together with scrapping a good deal of heavy bureaucracy we now have in our welfare system. And, a bit like Mr. Polecat describes the system in USA, we also have some situations when it is financially better not to accept a work and just to receive social security money. And then, some people who really need some support to get back to a better state where they can sustain themselves with a work they do, those people sometimes end up fighting the bureaucracy just trying to prove that they are not trying to milk the system... Uh oh, I'd like to see all of that just ditched. I'd be glad to see part of my tax money being used for a unconditional basic income for everyone. I know there are a lot of people who are against the idea of unconditional basic income, because they feel that it will make people lazy, just leeching the tax payer money, and that it is intuitively plain wrong to give people money for nothing - personally, I do understand that point of view, also. And I know that there isn't that much empirical evidence to settle the issue, so we are more or less left with our hunches, intuitions and feelings. Personally I feel that if people were unconditionally given a small basic income which is barely enough to keep them fed, then people would easily seek a job to earn extra money to make their lives more luxurious. So, I believe that the universal basic income would promote activity, instead of promoting laziness. But this is just my personal hunch, based on the way I see humanity, and I know I can't prove my belief. And, as already said in this comment chain, I also believe that how a unconditional basic income would work, depends on many things. Like the cultural context and the background of people, the availability of education and jobs etc. (All of this might change in unpredictable ways because of more advanced robots doing a greater share of simple, boring and repetitive work. Then we, as a mankind, will face the question: "how to share the profits of robotification in a fair way?"

But I haven't been writing about this kind of thoughts, for a variety of reasons. And one of the reasons is that I feel that to make my ideas clear I would need to write a very long, detailed and boring essay. Since my blog isn't that much a political one, I've decided to stay more on personal and grass-roots level.