4 ms·
Rather than these posts discussing universal basic income in abstract, I would like to see someone go through a back of the envelope scenario for a real country
by netcan 13y ago
Rather than these posts discussing universal basic income in abstract, I would like to see someone go through a back of the envelope scenario for a real country that might try it. Switzerland or some other European country.
Presumably there would need to be major changes to income tax brackets (especially for the lower income tiers) & dismantling of various existing welfare programs in order to fund a basic income. I think Friedman included public services like schools, public transport, health services, etc in his definition of welfare. I doubt Europeans would go this far.
Then we can discuss the more speculative parts like who will be more or less incentivized to work.
Is there something like that on the internet?
- ansimionescu 13y agoVery good point. After all, we all know how sometimes wonderful ideas can turn out badly [1]. [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism
- dmix 13y agoSocialism was a good idea, maybe an unrealistic one in many respects. Whereas Communism via "Vanguard-party" was always a bad idea. Pretty much all of communist countries never got past the Vanguard transitional stage and ended up with a brutal dictatorship.
- summerdown2 13y agoI think socialism has worked pretty well in the UK, all things considered. We've never gone the whole hog, but we have had a welfare state and a number of industries nationalised at various times. I rather like having a mixed economy where some elements of capitalism are balanced by socialism.
- sjtrny 13y agoIt's only turned out badly when countries tried to leap from agricultural to communism without the capitalist/industrial intermediary stage.
- PhineasRex 13y agoI'm not sure how this meme started, Communism is a `terrible` idea. The goals of Communism are good but the actual plan might be the worst model of government ever tried.
- spuz 13y agoYes. This was posted on hacker news a couple of weeks ago and attempts to put some basic (US) figures through a monte carlo simulation: http://www.chrisstucchio.com/blog/2013/basic_income_vs_basic_job.html http://www.chrisstucchio.com/blog/2013/basic_income_vs_basic... There was a lot of discussion generated from this article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6725096 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6725096
- michael_nielsen 13y agoSee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaranteed_minimum_income#Minimum_income_schemes_around_the_world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaranteed_minimum_income#Minim... for some pointers to schemes which have actually been tried.
- bausson 13y agoUniversal income experiment in India, which I think we can mark as 'successful'. http://mondediplo.com/2013/05/04income http://mondediplo.com/2013/05/04income
- nawitus 13y agoHere's[1] a detailet scenario for basic income in Finland. Key points: cost neutral, basic income would be 440€/month (although the study is a bit dated, and would be higher these day due to inflation) and the tax rate would be 36% (low in Finland). 1. http://www.vihreat.fi/files/liitto/TheBasicIncomeModel.doc http://www.vihreat.fi/files/liitto/TheBasicIncomeModel.doc