Re:Basic income doesn't emphasize divisions between poor and...
by majewsky on Monday August 29, 2016 @05:07PM
(#12385335)
Or you raise taxes for the rich 1%.
Re:Basic income doesn't emphasize divisions between poor and...
by mseebach on Tuesday August 30, 2016 @12:54AM
(#12387628)
The top 1% of americans are about 3 million people and have an average income of 1 million. They already account for just short of half of all income taxes.
Every time you want to raise enough revenue to give the 99% another $1,200 ($100/month), you need to raise taxes on each single member of the 1% by $120,000. And that's on average incomes of a million.
If you abolished every single government program and fire every single government employee, right from the DoD down to your local playground, from congress to the schools, never mind every single existing welfare program, assuming that tax revenue somehow managed to stay at the same level, what with no IRS to collect it and 22 million newly unemployed public sector workers, you could barely afford to pay a UBI at the minimum wage, never mind attending to the people who might legitimately need more help (also, no roads or schools).
UBI is either going to require cuts of a depth never proposed, much less enacted, in any western country, ever -- or be too small (perhaps a hundred dollars a month) to live up to its promises.