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by NoMoreNicksLeft 4101 days ago
> If it were provided to everyone without regard to their other sources of income it would differ from other approaches like welfare

The trouble with that is that the math becomes impossible.

If everyone gets equal benefit, then there are only two possibilities:

1. It's so small as to be worthless. Your annual basic income check of $6.28 won't be able to buy combo #3 at the drive thru, let alone combo #1.

2. The tax bill is so huge it strangles the economy. There are 300 billion people in the United States, for them to each get even $1000/year, that's $3 trillion. And what's $1000? Most basic income stooges talk more about 5 figure numbers... so we'd need $30 trillion/year.

Where does that come from? It needs to be up front, since people will lose jobs first, and only decades later will 100% automation actually produce immeasurable wealth.
2 comments
edmccard 4101 days ago
>There are 300 billion people in the United States, for them to each get even $1000/year, that's $3 trillion

300 billion? No. There are only around 318 million people in the US.

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NoMoreNicksLeft 4101 days ago
That's dumb.

What can I say, it's still morning.

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smountcastle 4100 days ago
As edmccard said, there are roughly 318 million people in the US. Not all of them are above the age of 18. Let's say adults get $1,500/month plus $500 for each dependent. So a married couple with two kids would get $4,000/month.

If we assume that 24% are under 18, that's roughly 242 million who get $1,500/month (for a total of $363 billion/month) plus the 76 million children that receive $500/month (for a total of $38 billion/month). That's $4.812 trillion/year which exceeds the current annual US budget by a little over $1 trillion.

So it doesn't look like $30 trillion/year. I agree that it seems unrealistic but perhaps the monthly amount can be lowered. Those who want to live better (or in more expensive locations) would still have to hold jobs. It does give others who cannot or do not want to work the opportunity to move to cost effective locations (where housing and utilities are cheap).

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