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UBI isn't a tax, it's a payout. It's typically linked with a land value tax.

• sverige 9y ago
  Why link it to land value, which could hurt retired people who own their homes but have fixed incomes? Wouldn't a better alternative be to tax corporate income and close loopholes that allow them to pretend they're Irish (or wherever) companies? Google and Apple could certainly afford to pay much more than homeowners.
  • EGreg 9y ago
    This. Corporations are where the money saved from automating jobs winds up. They are sitting on larger and larger cash stores. Facebook and others have one engineer per million people. Only corporate shareholders win, and only indirectly. Bernie would have been a great UBI candidate.
  • zardo 9y ago
    >Google and Apple could certainly afford to pay much more than homeowners. Total private land value in the US is in the trillions. Google and Apple could hardly make a dent in paying for a UBI.
    • EGreg 9y ago
      That's not the point. Landowners don't make profits from automation as much as corporations do. As automation grows, we capture that savings and redistribute it to the working class and unemployed class equally. Social Democracy!
      • sverige 9y ago
        >Total private land value in the US is in the trillions. >Landowners don't make profits from automation as much as corporations do. Much of that land value is due to demand for space rather than productivity. Corporations generate wealth by adding value (at least theoretically) and benefit greatly from automation, so there is cash flow to tax. Google and Apple are hardly the only corporations. They were just convenient examples of those who are successful at large-scale tax evasion and yet enjoy a generally good public image, along with Amazon, Facebook, et al.