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A comment on What is an appropriate level of Basic Income?. Parent comment

Re:What is an appropriate level of Basic Income? by nardi on Friday May 09, 2014 @11:05PM (#7724327)
No, enormous tax increase regardless, with a balanced budget. If tax revenues are currently $2.8 trillion, and basic income alone would cost $3.8 trillion, then even if government eliminates all other spending, taxes would still have to increase by $1 trillion in order to only pay for basic income.

Edit: The US Government does run a deficit, but it was $680 billion in 2013. A deficit of $1-2 trillion would be new.

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Re:What is an appropriate level of Basic Income? by dllthomas on Saturday May 10, 2014 @01:17AM (#7724593)
It's worth noting that increased economic activity would mean collecting more taxes even at the same rates. It's probably nonetheless true that, at the numbers given, there would have to be an enormous increase in tax rates - just trying to keep all the pieces in view.
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