Re:Pandemic speeds largest test yet of universal basic income
by eru on Friday July 10, 2020 @09:48AM
(#23791421)
> As I understand it, the basic income idea is based on that realistically almost everyone at some point uses government aid or finances (directly or indirectly). basic income is just making sure that when you need to make use of that aid, you don't have to jump through hoops, requirements and paperwork.
That points at an alternative way to conceptualize a basic income: at the end of the day, it's the net transfer that matters. Ie all the money and welfare services you get from the government minus all the taxes you pay.
On average over all of society that net transfer has to be zero. (Modulo complications to do with souvereign wealth funds and government debt.)
Now, most people around the world want rich people to pay and poorer people to receive on net.
The usual way to achieve that is via means testing in both the welfare and the tax system.
Basic income can be seen as a way to simplify government bureaucracies by shifting all the means testing out of the welfare system and into the tax system.
> By giving everyone enough to live and not starve, you can do that. Without needing bureaucracy. It goes together with other great ideas like a minimum livable wage[0], pensions, public education and public healthcare.
That points at an alternative way to conceptualize a basic income: at the end of the day, it's the net transfer that matters. Ie all the money and welfare services you get from the government minus all the taxes you pay.
On average over all of society that net transfer has to be zero. (Modulo complications to do with souvereign wealth funds and government debt.)
Now, most people around the world want rich people to pay and poorer people to receive on net.
The usual way to achieve that is via means testing in both the welfare and the tax system.
Basic income can be seen as a way to simplify government bureaucracies by shifting all the means testing out of the welfare system and into the tax system.
> By giving everyone enough to live and not starve, you can do that. Without needing bureaucracy. It goes together with other great ideas like a minimum livable wage[0], pensions, public education and public healthcare.
These other things don't sound like good ideas to me. Especially outlawing poor people's jobs seems cruel and a bad case of 'Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics' to me. See https://blog.jaibot.com/the-copenhagen-interpretation-of-eth...