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The IRS is reasonably good at cracking down on the fraud you suggest. Existing welfare/disability fraud/etc does allow one to exploit the taxpayer as you sugge

The IRS is reasonably good at cracking down on the fraud you suggest. Existing welfare/disability fraud/etc does allow one to exploit the taxpayer as you suggest, but it requires active work to do so. That too is a disincentive, and to an extent a social stigma. UBI has no such mitigating factors.

AnthonyMouse 10y ago
> The IRS is reasonably good at cracking down on the fraud you suggest. The problem is it isn't fraud. These are all real jobs: Cook, landscaper, courier, housekeeper, driver, repair tech, janitor, etc. They aren't any less a "job" when you're doing them for your roommate, but they're also the list of things that are already on the chore wheel. Nobody bothers to tell the government about them right now or do the accounting in dollars because there is currently no financial advantage in that. If you change that all it does is cause the same amount of real work to have more deadweight paperwork around it. > Existing welfare/disability fraud/etc does allow one to exploit the taxpayer as you suggest, but it requires active work to do so. It requires the same amount of active work regardless of whether or not you're "exploiting the taxpayer". Creating a bunch of paperwork for everyone is not an advantage. > That too is a disincentive, and to an extent a social stigma. The thing with a social stigma is playing video games all day, which hasn't changed. Eliminating the social stigma of low income people using government programs for low income people is an advantage. There are poor kids suffering in America because their parents are too proud to apply for programs they qualify for, or don't understand that they qualify for them. What's the point in having assistance programs if the only people you expect to use them are the most unabashed moochers because you shame honest people into not applying even though they qualify?

AnthonyMouse 10y ago

> The IRS is reasonably good at cracking down on the fraud you suggest. The problem is it isn't fraud. These are all real jobs: Cook, landscaper, courier, housekeeper, driver, repair tech, janitor, etc. They aren't any less a "job" when you're doing them for your roommate, but they're also the list of things that are already on the chore wheel. Nobody bothers to tell the government about them right now or do the accounting in dollars because there is currently no financial advantage in that. If you change that all it does is cause the same amount of real work to have more deadweight paperwork around it. > Existing welfare/disability fraud/etc does allow one to exploit the taxpayer as you suggest, but it requires active work to do so. It requires the same amount of active work regardless of whether or not you're "exploiting the taxpayer". Creating a bunch of paperwork for everyone is not an advantage. > That too is a disincentive, and to an extent a social stigma. The thing with a social stigma is playing video games all day, which hasn't changed. Eliminating the social stigma of low income people using government programs for low income people is an advantage. There are poor kids suffering in America because their parents are too proud to apply for programs they qualify for, or don't understand that they qualify for them. What's the point in having assistance programs if the only people you expect to use them are the most unabashed moochers because you shame honest people into not applying even though they qualify?