Re:Germany begins 3-year universal-basic-income trial
by nemothekid on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @03:00PM
(#24214657)
Why is UBI the thing that plunges us into full blown socialism, and not the myraid of other social safety nets?
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Re:Germany begins 3-year universal-basic-income trial
by thelean12 on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @04:13PM
(#24215694)
I didn't call it socialism. It's certainly not full blown socialism. All I'm saying is that it's a massive, risky change.
The current social safety nets are not as drastic as something like a $1400/mon stipend for everyone in the country (as Germany is trying). That's $5 trillion a year in the US. That over doubles spending right there.
In 2019 the US federal government had $3.5 trillion in revenues and $4.4 trillion in spending. Add another $5 trillion -> $9.4 trillion in spending with $3.5 trillion in revenues. We'd have to almost triple our revenues!
I know there are plans to pay for it, and it's probably possible. But you can't deny that it is drastic.
It's very dangerous to implement such drastic changes to the economy. And the consequences of getting it wrong are horrific.