[olabyne]

Lmao, americans shocked when they realized that proper social welfare is a thing always baffles me. To reply to you genuine question : 1. Yes it is a thing. 2. Everybody is paying for it through taxes.

[kaashif]

50% of yoursalary is not a simple safety net and is extremely excessive for well-paid software engineers of the sort being laid off at e.g. Twitter.

I support a modest minimum income provided by the government, but 50% of salary indefinitely is insane, it only makes sense if everyone is low paid.