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by AlexandrB
5 days ago
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The reason the "myth" persists is because there are some folks who take advantage of the system like this. In fact, many people personally know someone who's doing this. We can debate what percentage of recipients it is and whether we should worry about it or not, but it's a non-zero number. Framing it like some kind of racist trope is disingenuous and only works because of America's existing racial tensions. In Canada, for example, folks I've known doing this kind of thing are all white. At the most basic level, this shows up as folks avoiding working more than a certain amount to avoid losing some government benefits. This is a result of "benefit cliffs"[1] that actually reduce net income as you work harder. It's "lazy" in the sense that you're maximizing your earnings at others' expense by working less than you otherwise could, but it's also a perfectly rational decision given the incentives. My preferred solution is to have all benefits taper off gradually with income instead of having hard "cut offs". Done right this ensures there's never a financial penalty for working more. It does make the tax system more complicated though. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_marginal_tax_rate |
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Not everyone can start a defense contractor and get no bid contracts.
I’d say flat tax rate + UBI + single payer. The tax code should be a sentence. 25% of income or capital gains.
Social security and all other income transfers would be phased out.