News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Finland is scrapping plans to extend its basic income project. Parent comment

Re:Finland is scrapping plans to extend its basic income pro... by patrickthebold on Thursday April 19, 2018 @08:57AM (#16875477)
The US gives social security to nearly everyone, including people who "don't need it".

This was intentional. The idea being it's harder to take away a benefit that everyone enjoys, and fairly easy to take away benefits solely for "the poor".

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Finland is scrapping plans to extend its basic income pro... by briandear on Thursday April 19, 2018 @09:01AM (#16875513)
The US doesn’t “give” it to nearly everyone — you get a benefit as a proportion of your contribution. If you never contribute to social security, you don’t get the benefit.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Finland is scrapping plans to extend its basic income pro... by spacehome on Thursday April 19, 2018 @09:26AM (#16875701)
It's not directly proportional. Low lifetime earners get proportionally more back than high lifetime earners. It has the effect of a wealth transfer from high earners to low earners.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Finland is scrapping plans to extend its basic income pro... by dragonwriter on Thursday April 19, 2018 @09:18PM (#16881469)
> The US doesn’t “give” it to nearly everyone — you get a benefit as a proportion of your contribution.

It's not proportional to even the wage-indexed total of contributions, because of bend points. (And because it's actually based on qualifying wages, not contributions, and the relationship between the two has not been constant over time.)

[ Parent | on HN ]