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> because there is nowhere else to get it. Why that? Nobody's talking about abolishing taxes. Note also that the basic income would replace many other forms of
by brazzy 13y ago
> because there is nowhere else to get it.
Why that? Nobody's talking about abolishing taxes. Note also that the basic income would replace many other forms of social subsidies that already exist and have harmful side effects.
- downandout 13y agoWhy that? Because you can't tax enough to fund a basic income for every single person.
- brazzy 13y agoThat depends entirely on how high it is, doesn't it? Ultimately, it's not about money but about productivity. If the economy is productive enough to give everyone a minimal standard of living as well as comforts and luxuries for those who earn them, it doesn't really matter how said minimal standard of living is "funded". And there is little doubt that the economies of developed countries are that productive for a reasonable minimal standard.
- desas 13y agoYou can't tax enough to fund the current government spending either....
- randallsquared 13y agoYou can free up ~4500 per adult in the US "just" by redirecting the "mandatory" portion of the Social Security Administration and the Department of Agriculture (which I believe is largely food subsidies, but I could be wrong about that). Drop Medica.. and tell people to spend some of their BI on insurance if they need it and you can just about double it, with no tax increases at all. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_States_federal_budget http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_States_federal_budg...
- vilhelm_s 13y agoApparently the total income in the US is $13,401,868,693,000 (according to http://bber.unm.edu/econ/us-tpi.htm http://bber.unm.edu/econ/us-tpi.htm), which is about $43k per person. So funding a $20k/person basic income would correspond to about 50% tax? Actually I think this is an overestimate, since the declared incomes do not cover social security and corporate taxes.