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So, since this seems to be a big stumbling block for people: welfare and the dole are fundamentally different from a UBI. A UBI is unconditional, which doesn't
by scarmig 10y ago
So, since this seems to be a big stumbling block for people: welfare and the dole are fundamentally different from a UBI. A UBI is unconditional, which doesn't have the kind of adverse incentive effects that high effective marginal tax rates introduce. It's as similar to welfare as paying government salaries to public employees is. Which is to say, not at all.
- Animats 10y agoRealistically, paying enough money to live on to everybody is unaffordable for the next few decades. Welfare is affordable.
- scarmig 10y agoIt's not unaffordable in a meaningful sense: the USA could certainly afford it, by raising taxes to levels that highly taxed countries do. Another way to think of it: the UBI is about guaranteeing everyone can maintain some basic level of consumption to survive. Right now, the vast majority of Americans consume enough to survive and more. It's an accounting question: who's actually paying for the people to survive? Indirectly it's the government. This is just manifesting those costs transparently, and also doing some shifting of a substantial number of costs from charity, hospitals, and family to the government. As a society, though, it won't increase consumption by enough to exceed our ability to produce the goods and services consumed ("unaffordable").