He could start with his companies giving out a much larger share of equity to their employees. I always find it fascinating when VCs advocate for things like UBI or this American Equity plan while at the same time being a major contributor to income equality. They could do a lot right now bit instead they make some vague proposals while keeping their money.
American Equity
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Re: American Equity
#12TL;DR: America should implement basic income.
My usual objection to basic income applies: Basic income in some form already exists in most European countries. It's just a not-that-big parametric change to our current systems plus a change in mentality and social perception of welfare.
Suggesting that we should implement basic income of x euros is roughly equivalent to suggesting that we should increase the welfare unemployed people get today. If it was politically / economically feasible, we would already have it by now.
Re: American Equity
#13Because the impact of any one individual on the economy is so small, and because people can't be "fired" from the US like they can from a company, the free rider problem could be real. This could end up just being an added cost to the country that doesn't actually increase productivity or incentives in a meaningfully different way that other forms of putting more money into people's pockets (lower taxes, universal basic income, etc)
I think it is awesome though that influential people are putting forth creative ideas on how to make our country better. We need this
Re: American Equity
#14Here is a book on the topic that has had much more thought put into it than a Sam's short blog post. Equal Is Unfair: America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality https://www.amazon.com/Equal-Unfair-Americas-Misguided-Inequ...
The opposite of rising inequality is not total equality. That's just an attempt to kill the discussion.
Re: American Equity
#15To turn a Nation-State into a "for-profit" for citizens will make US a weird version of Petro-State without Petroleum.
Re: American Equity
#16People already have a share in the GDP. That's what it is, the total domestic product, the sum of all the little parts. The problem is not that people don't have share in it (and this goes for every country, not just for the USA), but that they have a disproportionate share in it.
Bill Gates' (to name a random American citizen) has a far larger share in the GDP than most other Americans. If you want to solve that raise your taxes on the rich and lift up those that are at the lowest end of the scale. That will have a lot more effect than some fiction where you get to do a bunch of make-believe bookkeeping.
Of course in the current political climate this will not happen, in fact the reverse will happen, tax cuts for the rich at the expense of the poor and the middle class.
Re: American Equity
#17He's proposing UBI but with a better name. But, before we go with that approach, let's just create wealth out of thin air. It really is possible. Just take all the land in CA that is locked up and undevelop-able and give it to the people. Those people can then sell it to developers and earn a huge amount of money. Now, I know, the way I've laid it out, has a lot of problems to overcome: mostly logistical and political. but the core idea of using unused land is quite sound, here in CA, where we deny ourselves the use of land. Most of the cost of housing is due to the cost of land, which need not be expensive in rural areas where unused land is found in every direction you look.
Re: American Equity
#18People already have a share in the GDP. That's what it is, the total domestic product, the sum of all the little parts. The problem is not that people don't have share in it (and this goes for every country, not just for the USA), but that they have a disproportionate share in it. Bill Gates' (to name a random American citizen) has a far larger share in the GDP than most other Americans. If you want to solve that rai…
This idea is basically UBI couched in capitalist terms. If every American gets a share of GDP, and GDP is concentrated, then that means that either 1) the share of GDP that each person gets is tiny and inconsequential (see: GOP-style tax cuts) or else 2) you need progressive taxation.
Another difference, aside from wording/marketing, is that the UBI is implemented as a progressive redistribution of future wealth generation as opposed to a tax on existing wealth ("as the economy grows...")
Re: American Equity
#19I'm a little unclear how this would work in practice. What is the financial instrument and is it equity in the government or equity in all the companies in the US? I see no reason why companies would do it and no incentive to take a part of the government (is the US government going to pay a dividend?), I'm not certain everyone having a share they couldn't trade would be worth it. I think the ability to trade state m…
>is the US government going to pay a dividend?
First, the US government would have to turn a profit...
Re: American Equity
#20People already have a share in the GDP. That's what it is, the total domestic product, the sum of all the little parts. The problem is not that people don't have share in it (and this goes for every country, not just for the USA), but that they have a disproportionate share in it. Bill Gates' (to name a random American citizen) has a far larger share in the GDP than most other Americans. If you want to solve that rai…
> Bill Gates' (to name a random American citizen) has a far larger share in the GDP than most other Americans. If you want to solve that raise your taxes on the rich and lift up those that are at the lowest end of the scale. That will have a lot more effect than some fiction where you get to do a bunch of make-believe bookkeeping.
Or go a step further do what nobody has the balls to do: tax wealth
That's what all these schemes are really trying to do, albeit in roundabout and inefficient ways. Taxing wealth has it's own complexities (unrealized gains and non-cash assets are the big ones) but it'd be saner than a negative tax (i.e. entitlement) calculated off GDP.