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A very large chunk of federal taxes are for UBI and universal healthcare for old people
by throwaway6734 4y ago
A very large chunk of federal taxes are for UBI and universal healthcare for old people
- bell-cot 4y agoBut doesn't Germany also provide those?
- it_citizen 4y agoThat’s the case for a lot of european countries and they get much more from it.
- calgarymicro 4y agoBasically every country in Europe (and many elsewhere) is able to offer both of these, plus universal healthcare for everyone, often with a similar tax burden. Social Security and Medicare aren't the problem here.
- throwaway6734 4y ago>often with a similar tax burden This isn't true
- dragonwriter 4y ago> A very large chunk of federal taxes are for UBI and universal healthcare for old people We don't have UBI for old people (a pension system that you are eligible for based on aggregate amount of prior qualifying income is not a UBI.)
- tomnipotent 4y agoSocial Security retirement benefits.
- dragonwriter 4y agoAgain, benefits for that (including whether you get any at all) are based on quantity of qualifying income, adjusted by wage index from the year earned. Its not remotely a UBI. A UBI is given at a fixed amount to all members of the eligible class, which is not determined by income past or present.
- twblalock 4y agoThe letter U in UBI means something. Social security is not universal. It's not even universal for retired people -- you have to pay into the system while you work to get the benefits when you retire. It is becoming increasingly tiresome to see any benefit touted as UBI. UBI mean universal benefits. If there are any criteria that prevent a person from receiving a benefit, it's not UBI -- it's just another benefit of the sort we've had for decades.
- red-iron-pine 4y ago> It is becoming increasingly tiresome to see any benefit touted as UBI. This is an explicit right wing talking point designed to raise the retirement age or abolish social security entirely. Just imagine what GPT-4 will do to online propaganda...
- seanmcdirmid 4y agoSocial security is funded via its own payroll tax (and hasn't dipped into the general fund yet, quite the opposite), so you can discount 6.2% for that right away. But for many people who make too little to pay much federal/state tax, that is a huge hit for them.