[stormbrew]

Negative income tax and basic income are best seen, imo, as separate concepts. Basic income is simply giving everyone the same amount of money and then probably taxing it as income in itself, with the base level personal exemption being at least the amount given out.

I'm of the opinion that a negative income tax is a bad idea simply because it really does create the situation where the next dollar you earn on the low end can make things worse for you (or at least not improve them). Why even bother working at a low level job if what they pay you just comes out of your stipend? This is a problem mentioned with the current programs as well, where getting a job can get you cut off from the things that were saving your life, even if the job pays shit.

Pure basic income, on the other hand, means that every dollar you earn increases your income.

[bryanlarsen]

Huh? Nobody's suggesting a 100% rate. Every dollar you earn increases your income with a negative income tax, it just doesn't increase it by a full dollar. It might be 90 cents. Still a fairly strong incentive to work.

[stormbrew]

Fair enough, but at the lowest income levels every cent counts. I don't see any benefit in it. It seems like people prefer it because of a similar misunderstanding about the alternative (that the basic income isn't taxed for people who earn significantly more, thus its price tag is exactly N people * N dollars).

[ahlatimer]

Fair enough, but at the lowest income levels every cent counts. I don't see any benefit in it.

Isn't that directly contradicting the point you made earlier? If every cent counts at the lower level, then even earning 90 cents on the dollar extra is still plenty incentive to attempt to earn more.