Re:Finland considers basic income to reform welfare system
by fez909 on Friday August 21, 2015 @11:13AM
(#10098017)
No, one of the great things about a BI is everybody gets it, whether rich, poor, working, unemployed, deserving or otherwise.
It's often called a Universal Basic Income for this reason.
Those who earn more than $12k in the above example would still receive it, but it would mostly be taken back off them in taxes.
If that's the case, then the amount is a whole lot less than $3.8 trillion. The calculation is then 12000 * (Amount_of_people_that_get_less_than_12k).
Latest poverty numbers (2013) that I could find indicate only 45million are living in poverty. Assuming that poverty maps to less than 12k (and assuming they get all of it, and not simply the difference), then the calculation is:
12000 * 45,000,000 = $540 billion.
Which is a lot less than what you mentioned, and would probably be even less. That is definitely do-able, if the political and social will is there.