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> Convince me I should fund people Are you in the top 1%? If so, you can afford it. If not, then I don't think your taxes should go up - I think Bezos' taxes s
by metabagel 1y ago
> Convince me I should fund people
Are you in the top 1%? If so, you can afford it. If not, then I don't think your taxes should go up - I think Bezos' taxes should go up, and there should be a wealth tax for high net worth individuals.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- osigurdson 1y agoThe top 1% globally is 60K USD for a single earner. Should taxes go up for anyone above this level?
- NERD_ALERT 1y agoWhat? Why would US taxes have anything to do with people in poorer countries?
- osigurdson 1y agoIt seems that UBI arguments are all about "fairness". So it naturally should extend to other countries it seems. Otherwise you are just creating another greedy / protected group. Of course people usually try to draw the UBI Venn diagram such that they are a net receiver of funds.
- wombatpm 1y agoAs soon as those other countries join the US it should extend to them as well.
- DangitBobby 1y agoIt's sounds like you are trying to draw it to be as absurd as possible to reduce the proposition to something ridiculous.
- Workaccount2 1y agoWhat would be absurd about a global UBI? It's amazing how fast people jump off the high horse of equality when you point out that on a global scale they are incredibly rich and privileged. Equality to them means them getting more material goods, not them giving up more material goods.
- lifeformed 1y agoIt's about impracticality, not morality. It doesn't make feasible sense to fix the whole world's economy in one go. And we shouldn't let imperfection get in the way of progress.
- osigurdson 1y agoJust identify one poor country that isn't very corrupt and start sending UBI money to it first.
- osigurdson 1y agoIt is hard to say "I want UBI because inequality" and then fail to recognize this. What they are really saying is "I don't want anyone to be richer than I am but fine with people being poorer". So the default human position on things.
- dwaltrip 1y agoCurrently, US taxes are primarily used inside the US, the exception being foreign aid, which relatively is a small amount. Are you suggesting the US should fund a global UBI?
- Workaccount2 1y agoThe logic extends flawlessly so it's difficult to say "I'm all for UBI, but only within our borders". The US has used cheap labor globally for decades, why would the blue collar worker in Indiana qualify more than the blue collar worker in Indonesia? Both are making goods for American billionaires and both are struggling.
- BrenBarn 1y agoFrom a moral perspective I agree and that should be the long-term goal. Practically, however, the notion of national sovereignty makes it infeasible to implement a global UBI. Within the borders of a country, that country's government can do what is needed to make it work (e.g., punish scofflaws). Across international borders, that's much more difficult. We see this already in that many countries that are "poor" overall have ludicrously high levels of inequality, because a small elite controls all the flows of foreign investment, etc. To take a simple example: within a country, if you send the UBI money to a local government for disbursement and the local mayor/governor just pockets it, he's still ultimately subject to the legal system of that country and can be jailed, etc. There's no international equivalent of this. If you send some UBI money to Poor Country X for disbursement and the local governor pockets it, there's nothing you can do except not send any more money.
- dwaltrip 1y agoThank you for explaining this.
- osigurdson 1y agoOK, so just send UBI to countries as corrupt or less than western ones.
- 1y ago