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US population estimate as of current = 316,582,121 Estimated population over 21 = 80% = 253,265,696 Cost of BIG: $2.53 Trillion (15% of GDP, more or less) Th
by ballard 13y ago
US population estimate as of current = 316,582,121
Estimated population over 21 = 80% = 253,265,696
Cost of BIG: $2.53 Trillion (15% of GDP, more or less)
The benefit hopefully would be no person should have to worry about basics of water, food and shelter. (See homeless camps that appear to be third-world mud & scrap shelters.)
- tghw 13y ago2012 Federal Tax Receipts: $2.45 Trillion This is where it falls apart. To implement this program, you would need to double tax receipts. 98% of income taxes, which account for about 46% of all receipts, are paid by the top 50% of the population. The median income is around $30k. At that level, about $4050 goes to federal taxes. If we double all tax sources, that would increase the tax burden to $8100. (This is assuming the BI is untaxed.) Effectively, the median would see an extra $5,950/year from this program. People making above $70,000 would start to see their taxes increase more than the $10,000 BI. People with incomes of $200,000 would be paying an extra $35k per year. I think it's an interesting proposal, but with these sorts of increases, you're going to encounter a lot of resistance from upper-middle classes and higher, the sort of people who tend to be much more influential in politics...
- ballard 13y agoSo how exactly would this be funded? Double taxes? The rich would never pay anything more, the mid/upper would be squeezed. Also: Deficit, debt and looming likelyhood of austerity strategy.
- tghw 13y agoThat's what I was getting at, we'd have to double taxes, though for anyone below $70k/year, it'd be a net positive.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]