The standard federal tax deduction is $12.5k and average US income is about $30k and US GDP is around $20 trillion and GDP per capita is about $60k. So you have about 50% of the economic output to work with. And you're right, average income tax per capita is $10k. Maybe $100k or even $10k is a better ball park starting point for a "universal tax credit". I just like the idea of setting the number higher than average earnings. I did hand wave around the assumption that in a scheme like this tax credits wouldn't be worth $1 on the open market but $1M is totally ludicrous I know. It was late and I didn't think anybody would notice haha. Got your attention though!
The general idea is that money could be more productive being added into the economy from the bottom rather than the top. The interesting idea is the marketplace and granting people some intrinsic value and some reason to participate in the economy other than just through labor output. Also not sure how to pay for healthcare, the military, infrastructure and social services if you mostly eliminate the federal budget. If the federal government took a cut of the transaction fees that could be another way to fund it. It's hard to define what "excess" profits are as well, $1B was also a totally arbitrary limit and most businesses don't create that much profit and you could game that system in a lot of ways. It's also difficult for small business to compete with large business in a marketplace for tax credits but I assumed that if you work for a company and also donate your tax credits to your employer that would convert to a cash bonus at some beneficial exchange rate for both. I imagine that's what the think tank would work on. Maybe I'll call it the "Institute for Science Fiction Economics".
