Monday, April 25, 2016

Minimum Income

I'll admit I'm fascinated by the minimum income.  The idea that the government provides a living income to everybody of a certain age, regardless of income.  Most other welfare programs, including social security would be replaced by this basic income.

The idea is to free people from the income cliffs inherent in other welfare programs that restrict what they can earn.  It also will theoretically increase risk taking and entrepreneurship due to having a fallback income.  It should drastically reduce administrative costs and it should be easier to minimize fraud.

The downsides are that it's EXPENSIVE, and might create a disincentive for work, though experiments indicate people reduce working time, but don't stop working.

Obviously implementing across the US would be a HUGE risk, but this is why I love the idea of a limited federal government.  If our federal leviathan wasn't involved in every single little fucking detail, a state could give this a try, and see what happens.

An economist I respect has some thoughts:
http://cafehayek.com/2016/04/40735.html

An opinion in favor:
https://force4good.me/2015/03/14/ways-to-improve-welfare-guaranteed-income/

Another post:
http://www.marketplace.org/2016/05/06/world/weighing-potential-universal-basic-income

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