If we can afford our current welfare system, we can afford basic income

Re:If we can afford our current welfare system, we can affor... by tim333 on Thursday January 28, 2016 @10:27PM (#10993288)

One of the troubles with this kind of reasoning is it kind of assumes peoples behaviour will remain much the same so someone on a $50k salary will keep at it but maybe with some basic income added and some tax removed and similarly for someone on welfare.

And maybe that will be roughly true initially but people change their behaviour and maybe the guy who would have done the $50k job if you give him say $300/week no strings attached will say hey, why slave away when I can go to Bali and surf and smoke joints.

We had something like that when I was a kid - the somewhat socialist UK government brought in generous untested welfare and some people used it to hit the beach in Spain and then the remaining workers paying the bills objected.

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Re:If we can afford our current welfare system, we can affor... by MaxGhenis on Thursday January 28, 2016 @10:51PM (#10993359)

Do you have sources for the Spain-beach-hitting? Several studies have found that cash transfers do not reduce work incentives, except in specific populations like new mothers and teenagers. Much more significant disincentives are those generated by current programs with welfare cliffs.

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Re:If we can afford our current welfare system, we can affor... by tim333 on Thursday January 28, 2016 @11:26PM (#10993491)

Not really on the sources. I remember it from news stories in the 60s/70s. It may have been hyped up by the tabloids rather than having been significant in reality.

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Re:If we can afford our current welfare system, we can affor... by aidenn0 on Friday January 29, 2016 @02:37AM (#10994003)

One of the advantages of BI is that if you earn more money, you pocket more money. It eliminates some of the disincentives where you pocket less money by earning more.

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