Re:Machine Money and People Money
by dragonwriter on Monday July 11, 2016 @01:13PM
(#12072551)
> Actually 5.3M adults have RSA in France(pop 66M) [...] Yes, the bureaucracy is daunting... [...] I'm just saying it looks a lot like UBI and doesn't lead to prosperity nor happiness.
If it involves daunting bureaucracy, and how much you get depends on how little other income you have, such that only the less than 10% at the bottom of the income distribution qualify, it doesn't look a lot (or even at all) like a UBI.
RSA is a minimum income -- a kind of means-tested benefit of the type UBI is offered as an alternative to -- not something that looks at all like a UBI. The difference is that RSA has a 1:1 loss of benefits with additional income up to the RSA threshold (at which point the benefit is zero.)
UBI has no loss of benefits with additional income, which means that -- unlike a RSA-like minimum income -- additional income for someone earning less than the UBI benefit amount provides additional utility, while with a minimum income it does not. This is one of the problems with incentive and ability to improve one's own condition that is inherent to means-tested social benefit programs (and also a driver of bureaucracy in such programs) that UBI aims to address.
If it involves daunting bureaucracy, and how much you get depends on how little other income you have, such that only the less than 10% at the bottom of the income distribution qualify, it doesn't look a lot (or even at all) like a UBI.
RSA is a minimum income -- a kind of means-tested benefit of the type UBI is offered as an alternative to -- not something that looks at all like a UBI. The difference is that RSA has a 1:1 loss of benefits with additional income up to the RSA threshold (at which point the benefit is zero.)
UBI has no loss of benefits with additional income, which means that -- unlike a RSA-like minimum income -- additional income for someone earning less than the UBI benefit amount provides additional utility, while with a minimum income it does not. This is one of the problems with incentive and ability to improve one's own condition that is inherent to means-tested social benefit programs (and also a driver of bureaucracy in such programs) that UBI aims to address.