News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Four Reasons a Guaranteed Income Won't Work. Parent comment

Re:Four Reasons a Guaranteed Income Won't Work by gremlinsinc on Friday December 06, 2013 @09:31PM (#6865186)
No, having any requirement at all puts more bureacracy into it, the point is to get rid of bureacracy -because that requires money for paperwork filing, and management, that could be spend on instituting the policy. The better method would be to have tax breaks for employed individuals. Perhaps each person would be required to pay back $500 in taxes per year if they're not employed, or something similar... Though, I feel we should move away from income tax as well and just have a national sales tax which would fluctuate based on what outstanding debt is and how much is brought in per year.

It IS possible to get spending in check, and fix everything, but we need to get rid of a LOT of bloat, there are WAY too many uneeded jobs in congress(especially in congress/and the senate lol). Personally, if I had a gbi, I would NOT work--in the basic sense, I WOULD innovate and do freelance work to earn extra money to put towards a startup idea... That is what I love about GBI -- the fact that entrepreneurs don't need to work but can actually work full-time on their business ideas!

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Four Reasons a Guaranteed Income Won't Work by andrewfong on Friday December 06, 2013 @09:53PM (#6865239)
Tax breaks for employed individuals is exactly what the EITC is. Assuming you stick with an income-based tax system, employment verification is effectively built in and requires little to no additional bureaucracy.

A national sales tax comes with its own set of bureaucracy. It's also regressive and shifts the tax burden disproportionately onto the poor (unless you made the sales tax wealth or income dependent, which would introduce the same bureaucracy you were trying to get rid of earlier).

I'm not sure a GBI would necessarily be good for entrepreneurship. I see your point, but having a runway disciplines young companies and forces them to get to market in a timely manner.

[ Parent | on HN ]