Charles Murray had a book about a similar proposal. He claims one can replace all the spending on redistribution programs with a $10,000 check to every US citizen.
It goes back further than that. During the Nixon Administration, Milton Friedman proposed that the entire welfare bureaucracy be replaced by a “negative income tax”.
I always laughed at Gov per diem travel reports.
They would pay 5 auditors to pour over your report to make sure you didn’t screw the Gov for a tube of toothpaste.
Spend $5k so save $5 LOL
I think it’s all flat rate now, as it should be.
When Cloward and Piven originally came up with their strategy, the purpose was to force us to move to THIS instead.
I figured out one time that in CA it would be cheaper just to give food stamps to whoever asked for them than to pay the gov’t employees that determine eligibility high salaries, Cadillac healthcare and generous pensions.
The people that determine eligibility for Medicaid get paid more than some of the Doctors when you factor their benefits that Doctors don’t get and the expenses (like insurance) the Docs have to pay.
These are union employees of course.
That adds up to over $3 trillion.