

Why Should We Support the Idea of an Unconditional Basic Income? - hypertexthero
https://medium.com/working-life/why-should-we-support-the-idea-of-an-unconditional-basic-income-8a2680c73dd3

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anonymous2013
Look at it from the cost effectiveness point of view. For instance, currently
we have a problem with several thousands of children illegally crossing border
into the US. To solve this, 4B$ has been requested. This amounts to a million
per child, roughly. I could think of alternative proposals: e.g a voucher for
10k$ to the child's family, payable in a year if they demonstrate up-keeping
the child: sending it to school, etc.

The 'guaranteed income' is much trickier than that, of course, but the
question is still valid: can it compete on cost-effectiveness with the current
system of Medicare/medicaid/SS/WIC/.....

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snitko
The only question one should ask is where does the money come from. If it
comes from thin air, fine. But they come from taxes. Government doesn't have
any money, it takes someone else's money and gives them to other people.

If you want my money, convince me to give it to you. Don't think that simply
because you can't come over and steal them from me yourself, but instead you
send government agents to collect it, it makes it okay.

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dllthomas
If it comes from thin air, it's a tax on currency denominated assets.
Typically a regressive tax - those with more wealth are more able to structure
their holdings more carefully, so lose a smaller portion of the value.

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snitko
I agree. Inflation is a form of taxation and is an immoral thing as well.

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dllthomas
Inflation isn't an act, in the way that taxation is. Inflation is basically a
decrease in the value of money. This can certainly happen if the supply is
increased, and that can certainly be due to printing of money, and _that_ act
is quite legitimately viewed as taxation. Supply can also increase due to
other factors (increased velocity of money, for instance) and value can also
decrease due to a decrease in demand. Calling, particularly, the last of these
"taxation" seems very strange to me.

I'm not going to dive into the morality of these things, here. Any productive
discussion is going to take way more time and attention than I have available.

