Trends that will create demand for an Unconditional Basic Income

Re:Trends that will create demand for an Unconditional Basic... by kyllo on Thursday July 11, 2013 @02:06PM (#6027851)

I think the $10k/year proposal was per person, not per household. Although that begs the question, at what age should the benefit start?

$10k/year is $833/month. $500/month rent and $333/month (about $11/day) for food is pretty basic subsistence for a single person. Yes, you'd have to work if you wanted anything more than basic nutrition and shelter, or wanted to live in a high-cost urban center, but the idea here is just that you shouldn't face homelessness/starvation just because you can't find gainful employment.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Trends that will create demand for an Unconditional Basic... by chiph on Thursday July 11, 2013 @03:42PM (#6028637)

If per-person, population of the US is currently about 330 million. Doing the math, that's $3.3 Trillion per year in payments to be made. Social Security expenditures in 2008 were about $615 billion. There are obviously other programs that people qualify for, and I'm specifically excluding Medicare/Medicaid because they're health programs, not living-expense programs.

Even so, if the income guarantee program were implemented, expenditures in this arena would go up by about a factor of 4 to 5.

[ Parent | on HN ]