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To roll this out on a national scale, at $500/mo for anyone under median income, at 160M US workers, would be 80 * 10^6 * 500 * 12 = 480B dollars. This is 1/7th
by ChrisLomont 6y ago
To roll this out on a national scale, at $500/mo for anyone under median income, at 160M US workers, would be 80 * 10^6 * 500 * 12 = 480B dollars. This is 1/7th more than current Federal Receipts.
Imagine trying to raise taxes on every form of federal taxes on average 14% to reach this.
For that much money, there are likely vastly better places to spend it in targeted assistance instead of such a ham-handed one size fits all program, with far better social returns.
- khaki54 6y agoWell really you have to use the full U.S. pop to pay for all of the kids and whatnot. So it's closer to $1T a year. Next, imagine just fully liquidating every U.S. billionaire and seizing their assets to pay for it for 1-2 years. Very realistic and self-sustaining.
- ChrisLomont 6y agoMost billionaires are rich via stock. Forcing stock sales will cause markets to tank. Markets tanking will destroy retirement funds, pensions, teacher and public pensions, and more. Capital flight will empty markets, similar to all the countries that got this dumb (see the swedish financial transaction tax as an example). With investment gone, payrolls will fail since lending will fail, rates will skyrocket from uncertainty, and so on. To stave off riots, the Fed will print money, and if we're lucky we'll be another poster child for hyperinflation. All so people who used to make 50k a year can have another 6k. Now we're all poor, but at least we're equal, right?