@CurtWelch

3 months ago

Real world basic income should start small. So small that there we should not be cutting any programs to fund it. The purpose being that it is a test to prove how it affects the economy and to test how people react to it. It should be funded by a new tax on all forms of income that are easy and fair to tax.

A 2% UBI tax on income in the US will fund UBI checks of around $1500 a year. Or round off to around $100 a month.

But a key thing this will show people is that for about 80% of the population will see that checks they receive exceed the extra taxes they pay. They will understand in black and white that it’s a good deal for them. It’s nit higher taxes for most. It’s higher incomes.

Plus they learn first hand how useful it is to have guaranteed cash coming in to protect from the unpredictable forces if life.

People receiving welfare who understand how much of a pain it is to deal with the welfare system will want to switch from welfare to higher UBI checks. Even if the checks are not as high as the welfare because most welfare is time limited. A non hassle check for life beats justifying to the government why you need welfare every month hands down for many.

When people see for themselves what a UBI does for everyone, even a very tiny $100 a month UBI they will be enough political desire to start trading off welfare programs for higher UBI checks.

A middle class household of three making $50,000 a year would pay a 2% UBI tax. So $1000 a year higher taxes. But they would receive back say $1200 x 3 or $3,600 in extra income for the year. It will be a no brainer for most to want more of that deal. The people pushing the hardest against a UBI today will be the ones demanding it the most after they get a first hand taste of it.

Is important that they see the tax as a line on their paychecks. And it’s important that everyone from the super poor to super rich pays the flat tax rate so that everyone can see what they are paying first and what they get back from the system.

The trick to a UBI in my mind is getting over the fear of change to start something so radically different than what we do with welfare today. A tiny starter program I think is far more important to push for that s large UBI where programs must be canceled to justify it.

If we can get it started. And people learn how it a tuall works, they will then demand we keep cutting back or throwing out all other forms of conditional welfare in favor of unconditional. A UBI will eat all the other programs in time.

But only if you can get it started nation wide.

That’s how I see it.

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