3 ms·
The idea of the government issuing a basic income is that people can choose in their own way how to get food, clothing and shelter, instead of having to settle
by TuringTest 12y ago
The idea of the government issuing a basic income is that people can choose in their own way how to get food, clothing and shelter, instead of having to settle with whatever the government provides.
Moreover, it would discourage working to get more money, since if you want to move into a less frugal home, you would lose all the benefits of having a government issued one. That choice would then be seen as a net lose.
- dragonwriter 12y ago> The idea of the government issuing a basic income is that people can choose in their own way how to get food, clothing and shelter, instead of having to settle with whatever the government provides. More fundamentally, in my view, is that basic income represents the citizens pro rata share of a portion of taxation that represents rents on the commons; the purpose government serves is to collect and distribute for efficiency as N:1 + 1:M interchanges involve transaction costs for N+M transactions rather than the N*M that are required for N:M direct transactions, but government has no reason to choose how the rents are spent (and there are, as you note, all kinds of pragmatic downsides when the government does that.)