I read three volumes of Das Kapital if that counts?

Random side note: Here is a snippet from a Lincoln speech -> https://pastebin.com/quzZqbiK

if you really did, then you didn't understand it.

Well, you are labelling a prime example of what Marx calls “bourgeois socialism” as Communism 2.0, so you clearly don't understand Communism. Which you'd really understand better by reading a slim volume on the topic like the Communist Manifesto, and not thick volumes centered on critique of capitalism like Das Kapital, which is more about the problem (on which Communists generally agree with other crítics of capitalism) and not narrowly focussed on the solution (on which they differ.)

The manifesto is one of the worst books I've ever read.

You're probably not the target audience, to be honest.

What was your take?

I actually liked his critiques at the time and I think capitalism should be constantly kept in check through government. (such that they balance each other out)

My unsubstantiated opinion would be that Marx probably would of changed his mind at some point about making it some sort of collectivist movement.

The UBI is also basically the welfare system most countries have without the expense and pain of trying to find the "cheaters" (See Australia's RoboDebt).

Its still capitalism and you still benefit from seeking a higher paying job but once most jobs have been automated it lets people easily train for better jobs without having to constantly report back to some defective government department and randomly getting their payments cut off.

Agreed. People get caught up in this binary capitalism xor socialism see saw, and device the side based on their own personal tipping point.

UBI can exist in a capitalist structure. It can exist in another structure. It is not mutually exclusive to capitalism.

And when the day comes where job demand far exceeds supply, it becomes an inevitability.

> The UBI is also basically the welfare system most countries have without the expense and pain of trying to find the "cheaters" (See Australia's RoboDebt).

Basically.

> Its still capitalism

No, the modern welfare state is not capitalism, it's a socialist reaction to capitalism. Now, you can argue that it's “bourgeois socialism” that tends to reinforce the class relations of capitalism and which inevitably reverts to capitalism, as Marx—before it actually became the thing that completely displaced old-school capitalism in the developed world—did. But it's not, itself, capitalism. And the longer it is the dominant system of the developed world without a wholesale reversion to unmitigated capitalism, the harder to pure form of the Marxian charge against bourgeois socialism is to defend.

> No, the modern welfare state is not capitalism, it's a socialist reaction to capitalism.

You have this completely backwards. The welfare state is a bourgeois reaction to socialism. It is capitalism with a bulwark against revolt.