Four Reasons a Guaranteed Income Won't Work

Re:Four Reasons a Guaranteed Income Won't Work by Houshalter on Friday December 06, 2013 @10:06PM (#6865280)

Cost can be dealt with by making it a negative income tax. That way not everyone is getting the full amount. People that are already making money only get a little from the system, whereas truly poor people get more. The new tax would be set just enough that it pays for itself. It probably wouldn't start at an amount that replaces current systems like welfare, but even $3,000 would help considerably towards evening out wealth inequality.

"People not working" is a good thing IMO, because many jobs have/are being automated and we can actually support people not having to work. The market rate for labor is pretty low. Things like the minimum wage prop it up even further from what the market rate would be. A lot of people not working would not actually cost the economy that much.

And as I said, the minimum income would probably start at a low amount, so people would still have a large incentive to work for the time being.

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Re:Four Reasons a Guaranteed Income Won't Work by philwelch on Friday December 06, 2013 @10:22PM (#6865327)

Negative income taxes are an elegant solution, but they entail literally paying people to commit tax evasion, not just in the "if I evade my taxes I won't have to pay as many" sense but also in the "if I evade my taxes the government will give me money" sense.

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Re:Four Reasons a Guaranteed Income Won't Work by cies on Friday December 06, 2013 @10:17PM (#6865315)

> because many jobs have/are being automated and we can actually support people not having to work.

Nicely put... I just want to dream on to this thought for a few minutes before I go on with my life :)

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