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Spanish minister proposes €20k ‘universal inheritance’ from age of 18

theguardian.com

21–30 of 76 posts

Re: Spanish minister proposes €20k ‘universal inheritance’ from age of 18

#23
post #21
post #10

I think its election season in Spain.

i wonder how those kinds of proposals are even legal. It's litteraly the equivalent of buying votes.

so this is a problem but a politician promising giant tax cuts isn’t?

Re: Spanish minister proposes €20k ‘universal inheritance’ from age of 18

#24
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"welfare, healthchare, social security, etc" Healthcare: Some people get unlucky with genetic lottery and will require far more cost in care than others. Some type of universal coverage still needs to exist imho. Social security: Unfortunately, not everyone is good with money. Social security is a mechanism for balancing out and restributing wealth, but it's also an investing service for those who don't know how to.…

I _am_ against UBI for exactly the reason you outline. We'll still need all the agencies and bureaucracy to help those who just need more help.

I think you're right to an extent, but I think ubi could bridge the gap between necessary services and nice to have services. It could let someone who is on food stamps and housing assistance choose to upgrade one of those or for them to buy the technology needed to get their next job. There are pitfalls, but I think ubi could be a good way of allowing people to position themselves to no longer rely so heavily on other assistance programs or live a better life on their own terms if they can't

Re: Spanish minister proposes €20k ‘universal inheritance’ from age of 18

#27

I think that would be a great idea. Except that I would put the age of receiving that inheritance at about 30. It's one of the ironies of life that when you are young you have time but no money, and when you are old you have money and no time. Think how great it would be if you got that money while you were still young enough to use it, and old enough to use it wisely.

Exactly. There’s a lot of danger waiting for you when you grow up and leave home. Money would certainly solve some problems, but if everyone knew every 20 year old had a big check they could go get a piece of, it will cause many more problems. 30 year olds will also have the same bullseye painted on their backs, but will at least have experience.

I wonder if to address this, we could do something slightly different. There is definitely a danger here. Hang out around a military base where a bunch of young men got back from deployment and see how many of them are driving BMWs. When I was in the Navy, my junior sailors would blow all the money they made on deployment on shitty cars and strippers.

Maybe instead of just cutting a $20K check, perhaps an account that allows certain purchases. Like here is $20K, it is pre-authorized to use it to pay for tuition for a college or trade school. Pre-authorized for medical expenses. And perhaps other things, but you can't exactly go out and blow it on cars and strippers. Then perhaps with a, if you don't use it by 25, you can roll it into your 401K?

Re: Spanish minister proposes €20k ‘universal inheritance’ from age of 18

#29
post #22

How about just cutting taxes? Damn politicians love to rob Peter to pay Paul so much...

That would affect a much smaller percentage of people who are 18 to the same amount. €20k in taxes is how much you would pay if you were earning 65k/yr, or 5 times the average of what Spanish people under 25 earn.

Cutting taxes for this age bracket would effectively only help those who are already well off, which isn't the purpose of this proposal. Regardless of the discussion of whether or not you should give out 20k, your proposal doesn't address the same issue.

Re: Spanish minister proposes €20k ‘universal inheritance’ from age of 18

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I _am_ against UBI for exactly the reason you outline. We'll still need all the agencies and bureaucracy to help those who just need more help.

I think you're right to an extent, but I think ubi could bridge the gap between necessary services and nice to have services. It could let someone who is on food stamps and housing assistance choose to upgrade one of those or for them to buy the technology needed to get their next job. There are pitfalls, but I think ubi could be a good way of allowing people to position themselves to no longer rely so heavily on oth…

The general issue I’ve seen is that dismantling programs to pay for UBI just means spreading the butter really thin so that the basic income is a pittance. The US just doesn’t spend so much on social programs to make a UBI meaningful, and if we were going to raise taxes to do so why not just fund more targeted programs?
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