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Request For Research: Basic Income

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Request For Research: Basic Income

#81

Post by baq »

marcell wrote: post #44

I'm very skeptical of basic income as commonly understood. The typical basic income program I've seen goes something like this: give every person in the country $10k to live on, no strings attached. [a] 1) As defined above, this is horribly inefficient and expensive. I, a software engineer in Silicon Valley, would receive this $10k. How does this benefit society? I already make over $100k; I don't need additional inc…

it's more or less negative tax; part of your income is already tax-free, BI is just stretching the idea the other way than it usually happens. also don't forget to cut the cost of most welfare - BI should handle most of it. it might actually cost less if welfare administration is expensive enough!

Re: Request For Research: Basic Income

#82

Post by jdmichal »

bobby_9x wrote: post #34
samstave wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that number is misleading. I have a spouse and three children. Does that mean we all will get 10K/yr? I have had a different thought on this in the past; Every child born should have $10K put into an account in their name on the day they are born. It will gain interest and grow until they are 18, then they get the money. And as an adult after 21, they are taxed at some rate to pay back the initial 10K that will t…

What will stop people from having multiple kids, just to get the $10K/child windfall?

Because the cost of raising a child to 18 years of age far outweighs the $10k + interest?

Re: Request For Research: Basic Income

#83

Post by bryanlarsen »

chubot wrote: post #46

My personal viewpoint is that you should be guaranteed survival and some opportunity by society, but not guaranteed income. That is, you should get food, shelter, medical care, and education for free (this also implies free child care). But you don't get to buy a cell phone or an XBox or whatever -- you have to work for that. In other words, I think basic income is jumping the gun a bit. Who is going to PAY for this,…

Basic Income is probably the most efficient way of giving everybody food & shelter. Giving everybody food and shelter through standard government processes would probably cost way more than $10K/year.

Re: Request For Research: Basic Income

#84

Post by harryh »

samstave wrote: post #18
harryh wrote: post #4

$10,000 * US_POPULATION ~= $3.2T ~= The total annual tax revenue of the US federal government. Something to keep in mind when discussing this topic.

But that number is misleading. I have a spouse and three children. Does that mean we all will get 10K/yr? I have had a different thought on this in the past; Every child born should have $10K put into an account in their name on the day they are born. It will gain interest and grow until they are 18, then they get the money. And as an adult after 21, they are taxed at some rate to pay back the initial 10K that will t…

I love your idea. It's like a perpetual motion machine of money.

Re: Request For Research: Basic Income

#86

Post by danieltillett »

highCs wrote: post #48
davidw wrote: post #5

There's a very relevant section in this book ( The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies - http://amzn.to/1KFJ1Iu ) , that I just read last night: > "His view is strongly supported by the work of economist Andrew Oswald, who found that joblessness lasting six months or longer harms feelings of well-being and other measures of mental health about as much as the death of…

What happens now if everybody is jobless, does the jobless still feel bad about it?

Based on what happens in remote communities here in Australia the result is not pretty. We basically have a basic income here in Australia via our welfare system. What we have found when everyone is jobless is there are huge levels of drug use, domestic violence, child abuse and general criminality. Other than this it works quite well.

Re: Request For Research: Basic Income

#88

Post by simonh »

TrevorJ wrote: post #17

I wonder what basic income would do to cost of living? If everyone ends up with x amount of guaranteed income, does the cost of living eventually rise by the same amount across the board and basically negate it? It seems like rent-seeking behavior would come in to play here.

I think the cost of a lot of basic goods and services would fall. Employers would only need to offer relatively modest wages because the marginal value of those wages would be so much higher. This could drive down labour costs without driving down net pay for low wage workers. Basically a worker on $1,000/Mo now might be on $600/mo basic income and $600 wage after (fantasy numbers). This could make low wage workers much more affordable for employers leading to more employment and cheaper goods and services, leading to lower cost of living. A win for employees, won for employers and win for customers. Of course this is an idealised scenario, it would all need to be funded from higher overall taxation.

Re: Request For Research: Basic Income

#89

Post by anc84 »

davidw wrote: post #5

There's a very relevant section in this book ( The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies - http://amzn.to/1KFJ1Iu ) , that I just read last night: > "His view is strongly supported by the work of economist Andrew Oswald, who found that joblessness lasting six months or longer harms feelings of well-being and other measures of mental health about as much as the death of…

Affiliate tag free link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D97HPQI/
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