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That's an interesting idea, but sumptuary laws have a history of being widely evaded and hard to enforce; I'd refer you to Fernand Braudel's Structures of Every
by clock_tower 10y ago
That's an interesting idea, but sumptuary laws have a history of being widely evaded and hard to enforce; I'd refer you to Fernand Braudel's Structures of Everyday Life, dealing with European life in the 1500s-1700s.
- yummyfajitas 10y agoYou are probably right about enforceability. As a thought experiment one could imagine other enforceable variations, however - displaying on Facebook/Twitter/Tinder/etc whether you are a social benefactor or parasite, for example.
- clock_tower 10y agoI'm sorry I'm being so relentlessly negative, but I'm skeptical of this approach too. There's the obvious Orwellian angle -- it sounds like you might be legally required to have an online presence tied to your real name and identity -- and if you stigmatize basic-income recipients as parasites, you'd risk generating the political will to repeal basic income entirely. (See also Bill Clinton, in a memorable only-China-can-go-to-Nixon moment, promising to "end welfare as we know it" in the 1990s.) I think it's better to just push through with the idea and accept the inefficiencies of everyone getting it -- once a given country has the tax base to pull it off.