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You can't use Social Security funds to fund a Basic Income. It operates similarly to a pension fund so it would be equivalent to confiscate peoples lifetime sav
by effn 13y ago
You can't use Social Security funds to fund a Basic Income. It operates similarly to a pension fund so it would be equivalent to confiscate peoples lifetime savings. Good luck explaining that to someone who is just about to retire.
- derefr 13y agoYou can, however, say that going forward, people will pay into basic income instead of social security; and that no one born after [policy-change date] will receive social security in the future (since they never paid into it.)
- effn 13y agoPossible in theory. But then you have to explain to people why they are paying the same amount of tax as people one year older than them, but will still receive a lot less when they retire.
- dllthomas 13y agoIt needn't be a sharp cutoff.
- danielweber 13y agoThat's coming anyway. For the record, you have zero ownership rights in your SS benefits. They can be changed at will.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- dragonwriter 13y ago> You can't use Social Security funds to fund a Basic Income. Yes, you can. > It operates similarly to a pension fund It presents itself as one, but it really operates as a general-tax-supported social-benefit program with a variety of eligibility criteria. > so it would be equivalent to confiscate peoples lifetime savings. Sure, some people would politically attack it that way, particularly if the general BI reduced the SS benefits to which people already qualified would receive. Its less subject to this political attack, however, if SS is merged into BI in such a way that no one currently paid into SS ends up with less BI at any point than they would have received from SS.