5 ms·
Carving out the government. The US government today spends 23k per person/year. https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/per_capita https://www.usgovernmentspendin
by conanbatt 8y ago
Carving out the government.
The US government today spends 23k per person/year. https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/per_capita https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/per_capita
- notahacker 8y agoThat figure mostly shows how little wiggle room to create a UBI exists. I have a feeling that eliminating all funding for education and healthcare to create a new $12k pa handout for people not currently entitled to welfare or social security might not be a universally popular move...
- conanbatt 8y agoI think it shows plenty of wiggle room. You think all the dollars that go to health spending are well spent? 5k year per capita means that the government spends 400U$S per person for all the health expenditures it has, on top of the 400--700~ a month american spend for PPO plans for themselves without getting government health assistance. Just pensions and healthcare are almost half the expenditures, 2 things absolutely in the realm of inefficiency.
- notahacker 8y agoI don't think the US healthcare budget can't be improved. I just don't think the way to improve it is to eliminate it altogether to pay for a fraction of the US population to receive $12k handouts instead. And the pensions budget is mostly spent on disbursing cash to people with the right social security number - precisely the thing you're advocating doing more of....
- sokoloff 8y agoI think you do some of that and also raise taxes across the board. MFJ making $75K/yr AGI might get $12K in UBI and an increase of $6K in their taxes. MFJ making $45K might get the full $12K and no tax increase. I don’t know what the right levels are, but it can’t/shouldn’t be “everyone gets an extra $12K of spending money thanks exclusively to the ‘tippy top’ earners.”