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A comment on A Dutch city is giving money away to test the basic income theory. Parent comment

Re:A Dutch city is giving money away to test the basic incom... by mkingston on Thursday July 02, 2015 @04:51AM (#9817596)
Yes, but the state will take more than it gives from the billionaire. This is actually more bureaucratically efficient than manually means testing every possible recipient.
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Re:A Dutch city is giving money away to test the basic incom... by anticon on Thursday July 02, 2015 @04:59AM (#9817619)
How would they take more from the billionaire? Means test them? What if they're asset rich, cash poor... or if they have no income? The whole idea is unworkable. It's like it's been dreamed up by a 5 year old.
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Re:A Dutch city is giving money away to test the basic incom... by dtech on Thursday July 02, 2015 @05:51AM (#9817827)
> How would they take more from the billionaire?

We have this obscure system that has been around for a few thousand years to do this. It's called "taxes".

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Re:A Dutch city is giving money away to test the basic incom... by mkingston on Thursday July 02, 2015 @05:07AM (#9817652)
In the current system, yes. But at least we do away with one set of means testing. I would actually argue for a flat tax rate in the presence of a basic income. As for "asset rich, cash poor, no income" there are plenty of ideas out there for capital or capital gains taxes.
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