
FiveThirtyEight's take on basic income - hammock
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/universal-basic-income/#hn2
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lumberjack
Maybe change the title cause I thought this was going to be an opinion piece
but it's actually just a thorough summary of history of basic income.

Two things I don't necessarily agree with:

1\. You can get rid of the "welfare cliffs" without basic income. Just get rid
of means testing. In Europe there are various welfare services that are not
means tested. I believe various European countries have child allowances for
everyone.

2\. It is not at all clear to me that it will be cheaper and more cost
effective to replace any given welfare service with a direct cash payment to
the recipients. The government can negotiate prices from a much better
position than single individuals can. Just look at how much cheaper drugs are
in places where the government forces a monopsony.

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GFischer
Another discussion here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11563958](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11563958)

