It Is Time For Basic Income

Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by nkoren on Saturday March 22, 2014 @11:57AM (#7449519)

You don't decide. The point of Basic Income is that it's unconditional and universal. If somebody can prove they're a citizen, they get the BI, no need to determine their income.

As for a $4k tax being "crippling to a good chunk of them" -- no, you misunderstand the nature of BI. If we're paying $20k worth of BI in this scenario, then the mean income should be about $40k (since a good level for BI -- in basically any economy -- is about 50% of the mean). We could then support a flat $20k/person BI with a flat 50% earned-income tax. This means that the payments and receipts, per person would look like this:

  Income    Tax   +BI    Net    Effective tax rate
  $0       -$0    $20k   $20k   N/A
  $10k     -$5k   $20k   $15k   N/A
  $20k     -$10k  $20k   $10k   N/A
  $30k     -$15k  $20k   $5k    N/A
  $40k     -$20k  $20k   $0     N/A
  $50k     -$25k  $20k  -$5k    10%
  $60k     -$30k  $20k  -$10k   15%
  ...
  $100k    -$50k  $20k  -$30k   30%
  ...
  $1,000k  -$500k $20k  -$490k  49%

As you can see, people making the mean income or less would make nothing at all. People making moderately more than the mean income would pay a little bit, but no more than they currently pay to support benefits programs. The only people paying a lot would be the people who could afford it.

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Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by eanzenberg on Saturday March 22, 2014 @05:59PM (#7451084)

No.

Explain why after spending 10 years in school my tax burden should increase by 30k (making it an effective 60% rate not counting 10% sales tax in CA) to give to able bodied people who choose not to get off their ass. I guarantee you society is better off letting me keep what I earned rather than giving it to a completely untested individual. I didn't work my ass off for you.

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Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by yungchin on Tuesday March 25, 2014 @02:04AM (#7464147)

It's called "paying it forward". Assuming, of course, that some form of BI would be in place, you would have spent those 10 years in school supported by a BI. So paying those taxes, you're making sure that people just like you can afford to spend 10 years in school and become great and awesome too.

PS: I hardly ever meet any of those "able bodied people who choose not to get off their ass" - they mostly show up in discussions like these - and I suspect they're a tiny minority. Let's not adjust policies to punish that tiny minority if, in the process, everybody else gets punished too.

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Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by dllthomas on Sunday March 23, 2014 @01:58PM (#7454267)

"(since a good level for BI -- in basically any economy -- is about 50% of the mean)."

How do you arrive at this?

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Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by sitkack on Saturday March 22, 2014 @03:06PM (#7450370)

Someone needs to turn this into an animated chart. It looks like you are taking away someones first dollar earned?

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Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by dllthomas on Sunday March 23, 2014 @02:01PM (#7454277)

"It looks like you are taking away someones first dollar earned?"

I don't see where you're getting that. Presuming the numbers haven't changed since you commented, it looks to me like taking away half of every dollar earned.

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Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by sitkack on Sunday March 23, 2014 @11:06PM (#7456463)

I guess I don't understand what 'Net' is. Is it the cost of the government, so if I earn 20k on the open market, are given 20k and taxed 10k (I have 30k in my pocket, and the gov has spent 10k)?

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Re:It Is Time For Basic Income by dllthomas on Sunday March 23, 2014 @11:40PM (#7456554)

Net here is the amount received by the individual in basic income, less the portion of their taxes going to pay for the basic income, assuming it is funded with a 50% flat tax. So yes, if you earn $20k, are given $20k, and are taxed (for the purposes of funding the BI) $10k, the net (direct) effect of the basic income program on your bottom line is $10k.

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