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Through this lens I'm kind of surprised it's not a more popular policy, I'd never thought about it like this.
by ehnto 5y ago
Through this lens I'm kind of surprised it's not a more popular policy, I'd never thought about it like this.
- wpietri 5y agoThere are certainly ways to do it that are less risky than others. I think the closest thing the US has now is the Child Tax Credit: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/Treasury-and-IRS-Announce-Families-of-Nearly-60-Million-Children-Receive-%2415-Billion-Dollars-in-First-Payments-of-Expanded-and-Newly-Advanceable-Child-Tax-Credit https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/Treasury-and-I... That's relatively hard to corrupt, in that it's a federal program with clear numeric criteria drawn from a system that is robust because it's a big slice of government revenue. Also, as far as popularity goes, at least in the US there's a strong allergic reaction to The Wrong People getting government money. So the mortgage tax credit is seen as fine and reasonable, but "strapping young bucks" getting food stamps is a deep outrage. So I think UBI won't become truly popular until politicians can find a way to get enough control over who gets it such that only the right people (wink, wink) get it.