The Poorest 20% of Americans Are Richer on Average Than Most Nations

Re:The Poorest 20% of Americans Are Richer on Average Than M... by dragonwriter on Monday August 26, 2019 @03:10PM (#20802751)

> Something's very wrong when making more money makes you poorer and less healthy.

Yes, what's wrong is cut-off thresholds (or just phaseouts that, when totalled across programs, exceed $1 lost benefits for each $1 of additional income.) It's one of the things motivating UBI, since then all the phaseout happens in one place, by way of progressive marginal tax rates.

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Re:The Poorest 20% of Americans Are Richer on Average Than M... by sieabahlpark on Monday August 26, 2019 @05:52PM (#20804157)

Why not tackle the origin of the issue instead of subsidizing it? That just gives more money to the people who are now able to charge more.

It's the same argument to raise minimum wage that'll apply to increasing UBI. I don't see it being the correct avenue to have long-standing progress.

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Re:The Poorest 20% of Americans Are Richer on Average Than M... by dragonwriter on Monday August 26, 2019 @05:59PM (#20804207)

> Why not tackle the origin of the issue instead of subsidizing it?

UBI is addressing the root of the issue I pointed to, with healthcare specifically, though, for the same avoiding thresholding reason that UBI serves for aid generally, public baseline healthcare should be universal and not income qualified.

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