What if we gave everyone in the US $1 million US dollars?

[bewbew]

I think such a day is coming within the next 100 years.

3D printers will print out anything you want for mere pennies, playstation, TV, anything. Materially we'll have no wants.

I think people need to struggle, struggle makes you healthy. Take struggle away and people will vegetate. I don't think having everything will be good for humanity.

3D Printers don't mine the resources and transport them half way across the world, and then organize the final products in a nice store where you can choose from many different options, serve you coffe and take your payment in 6 times without interest.

It just makes one of the many stages of production a little cheaper.

[Eldar45]

A McDonalds hamburger would cost $30,000 the next day.

I think such a day is coming within the next 100 years.

3D printers will print out anything you want for mere pennies, playstation, TV, anything. Materially we'll have no wants.

I think people need to struggle, struggle makes you healthy. Take struggle away and people will vegetate. I don't think having everything will be good for humanity.

I doubt 3D printers will ever print out food, and as the human population grows food becomes more scarce.

If the socialists ever want to get their glorious utopia then you need two things: Unlimited resources and unlimited energy. So until warp cores and replicators (IE: Star Trek tech) becomes reality then you are living in a world of markets.

[araine]

The price of a 6-pack of Bud would jump to one million and six dollars.

no problem since noone that likes beer drinks that piss

[Celista]

Depends

Cause people would leave the US where the US dollar would have hit rock bottom thanks to inflation.

Inside the US there would be chaos but outside?

Thing with the US dollar is that its only worth anything cause it has a stable government, High industrial might and a fucking massive military backing it!!

Yeah, I was trying to think of what would happen globally, especially with pegged currencies etc. Been too long since my econ classes.

[Deleted]

In the short term the economy would take a hit, because people wouldn't show up to work. Then inflation would kick in, making things even worse. Of course the money would at this point be worthless and all you would have done is to slow the growth of the economy.

[Mittens]

You would see inflation the likes of what Peru suffered during the 80s

[Raeph]

1 mil isn't that much anymore. Besides since we don't teach people how to manage their finances, as a point of basic education, in the USA most people would blow their allotment before they actually improved their life.

In my case:

$150k for a church contribution
$150k to pay off all debt (medical, credit card, mortgage)
$4k to fix my current vehicle to a high standard(it only has 89k miles on it)
$30k to buy a good quality used vehicle (like 30-50K miles on it) and use the remainder to again fix it up to a high standard.
$250k to invest in a 2-5% yield fund for retirement
$15k to splurge for myself
$15k to splurge for my wife
$250k to build a better house or significantly remodel the one I currently own.
$50k to do some serious landscaping on my 2.2 acres
Remainder goes into the bank as an emergency fund.

...The Monday I go back to work.

[Celista]

In the short term the economy would take a hit, because people wouldn't show up to work. Then inflation would kick in, making things even worse. Of course the money would at this point be worthless and all you would have done is to slow the growth of the economy.

Can you think of a way to give everyone that amount of money without causing unwanted side effects like inflation?

[Independent voter]

3D Printers don't mine the resources and transport them half way across the world, and then organize the final products in a nice store where you can choose from many different options, serve you coffe and take your payment in 6 times without interest.

It just makes one of the many stages of production a little cheaper.

Yes, it will be automated and most likely mail ordered or delivered by drone, etc.

[Masark]

I'm not even sure there is that much money in the Universe.

Nope. Global M3 is approximately $81 trillion, or about 250k for each US resident.

[bewbew]

Can you think of a way to give everyone that amount of money without causing unwanted side effects like inflation?

Do the reverse.

Instead of giving people money, produce massive amounts of things to the point everything is significantly cheaper.

Money, in the end, is just a trade tool to represent goods or services. If you want more "money" to be really available without causing inflation, you need more goods or services to exist.

That is why people think so much about automated work (robots) making people not have to work - because the abundance of cheap labor provided by the robots will (could?) make the price of many manual tasks so low that no human will want to perform them at the values being offered.

[Travis B]

If I had a million dollars, I would invest half of it in various mutual funds, and then take the other half over to my friend Asadulah who works in securities.

[yetgdhfgh]

I would spend it on alcohol, drugs, loose women, WoW Bnet and then the rest i would just waste!!!

[bewbew]

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Yes, it will be automated and most likely mail ordered or delivered by drone, etc.

Then this is not a scenario of just 3D printers. We're going full robotic utopia.

How far are we going? Are these robots able to produce their own energy? Do their own maintenance?

[Rukario]

I'd move to the countryside and live off of it for the rest of my life...

I am simple man.

[MrMatticus]

99% of people would waste it all in a day.

[Seranthor]

I edited the OP but obviously you would need more than that due to taxes, some sort of infrastructure for distributing the money, etc.

While I think your idea is laudable, even if you could accomplish it there are some people that would be just as broke as they are now shortly after your gift.

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Can you think of a way to give everyone that amount of money without causing unwanted side effects like inflation?

No, that kind of influx of cash would have damaging repercussions nationally and globally for many years.

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99% of people would waste it all in a day.

Sadly I do not believe your sentiment is wrong.

[NM 156]

True but $1M isn't enough for most people to stop working entirely. If you wanted to live off of 30k a year, you would have enough cash to last you about 30 years in today's dollars, assuming 0 inflation (which would not happen in this scenario or any scenario).

You bring up a good point though, there would be a point where people would just stop working.

If I could get 2% yearly on my one million I could live off of it indefinitely. And so could most of my friends.

[Celista]

While I think your idea is laudable, even if you could accomplish it there are some people that would be just as broke as they are now shortly after your gift.

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No, that kind of influx of cash would have damaging repercussions nationally and globally for many years.

What I'm trying to figure out is what specifically the global effects would be. I know that any sort of inflation would impact pegged currencies and that if people stopped working, it would impact exports/trade.

Of course some people would be irresponsible with it. But others would likely do some amazing things.

@bewbew that's a good idea, giving everyone AI. But wouldn't that also likely cause inflation?

Maybe a tangible good would be better in this situation, like giving everyone a house. Could be phased in slowly.

[Deleted]

Can you think of a way to give everyone that amount of money without causing unwanted side effects like inflation?

Yeah, make the economy better and goods more numerous and therefore cheaper. Increasing people's buying power, rather than handouts is the way to go.