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0 pointsAnthonyMouse12y ago0 comments

Basic income doesn't inherently require taxes to increase, especially if you measure it as taxes paid less government benefits received. You're thinking of things in class warfare terms -- someone else gets more money from the government therefore I get less or pay more. Any program that works on that principle is just redistribution of wealth, or naked corruption.

The benefit of a basic income is that it changes incentives. In the existing system you lose government benefits if you take a job, so if the only job you can get pays low wages you have a significantly reduced incentive to seek employment. Higher unemployment means lower tax revenues, lower economic growth, etc. Fighting that is why a basic income is superior to means tested government assistance.

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weddpros12y ago

Say I'm jobless, and I make 1000/m. If I find a job that pays 1100 : - with BI I'll make 1100. That's the value of work. - without BI I'll make 100 + 1000. The value of work is 100.

With BI, people will think "I don't want to work for 100/m" (you know, it's the gov that pays the other 1000/m). You'll hear people say "I'm paid 1000 just to breathe, why work for 100?".

It you want to limit this problem as much as possible, you'll need a basic income of exactly 0.

streptomycin12y ago

Problem is, rich countries already have welfare systems and hardly anyone would support completely eliminating them. So people are already paid to breathe. The question is how to do so while minimizing perverse incentives.

AnthonyMouseOP12y ago

Exactly. The problem right now is that if you have no job, you get government assistance. If you get a job, you lose the government assistance, so a job that pays $1200/month only allows you to keep $200 in your pocket because you've lost $1000 in government benefits by taking the job and no longer "needing" the assistance. We've created a de facto 80+% marginal tax rate on the working class vs. being unemployed, which is economically Very Bad.

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sharemywin12y ago

I think with basic income you would get $2100.

weddpros12y ago

Sorry, no.

And it's a good thing: imagine the inflation rate if salaries were raised by up to 100% overnight...

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsAnthonyMouse12y ago0 comments

0 comments

weddpros12y ago

Say I'm jobless, and I make 1000/m. If I find a job that pays 1100 : - with BI I'll make 1100. That's the value of work. - without BI I'll make 100 + 1000. The value of work is 100.

With BI, people will think "I don't want to work for 100/m" (you know, it's the gov that pays the other 1000/m). You'll hear people say "I'm paid 1000 just to breathe, why work for 100?".

It you want to limit this problem as much as possible, you'll need a basic income of exactly 0.

streptomycin12y ago

AnthonyMouseOP12y ago

1 more reply

sharemywin12y ago

I think with basic income you would get $2100.

weddpros12y ago

Sorry, no.

And it's a good thing: imagine the inflation rate if salaries were raised by up to 100% overnight...

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse