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Of course it does. There have been many basic income proposals over the decades, some of them universal and some not. It does not make sense to assume that UBI
by jltsiren 2y ago
Of course it does. There have been many basic income proposals over the decades, some of them universal and some not. It does not make sense to assume that UBI refers to any specific model.
In particular, there are some UBI proposals where the level of the basic income is intentionally too low to cover basic needs. Those proposals aim to dismantle the welfare traps that plague non-basic income models. Once your income grows high enough that you start losing welfare benefits, your effective marginal tax rate can be very high. Rates above 80% are common, and sometimes they rise above 100%.
- jncfhnb 2y agoUsing your logic then, what’s the difference between a universal income and a universal basic income? There doesn’t seem to be any. You seem to have confused yourself into thinking that since you could run a “universal partial basic income” scheme that the definition of the term UBI must refer to a general framework that can accommodate this. But that is semantically backwards. UBI is universal full basic income. Partial UBI is a different thing. It’s like saying you can do a 360 flip and then doing a “partial 360” where you turn 180 degrees. “Full basic” means it meets your basic needs. It means basic. Binary. “Partial Universal Basic Income” equates to “Universal Not Basic Income”.
- jltsiren 2y agoThe "basic" part is an accounting technicality. Everyone entitled to the benefit gets the basic income, but it's taxed away from those who earn enough. This is in contrast to traditional welfare benefits, which you only get if you apply for them. There are also basic income proposals without the "universal" part. For example, only those who work get the basic income. (This is often called negative income tax.) This is supposed to give those in necessary but low-paying jobs a fairer share of wealth than what the market would give. I've never heard of anything called "universal income".