Posted on 04/30/2018 9:54:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The latest "big idea" in the U.S. is the Universal Basic Income — a guaranteed income for all. Progressives of course like the idea, but even some conservatives and libertarians do, too. Only one problem: It doesn't work.
Ask Finland, a highly progressive Scandinavian country that has an ongoing guaranteed income experiment, but is abandoning it.
Starting in 2017, the two-year Finnish program selected a random group of 2,000 unemployed people and gave them a monthly income roughly equal to about $678 for doing ... nothing. The government hoped that many participants would flood back into the labor market.
But Finland is already backing off. As the New York Times put it, "Many people in Finland — and in other lands — chafe at the idea of handing out cash without requiring that people work."
Imagine that. Taxpayers upset about subsidizing other people to do nothing, while expanding government.
It's comforting, we suppose, that Finnish social planners have no more common sense than those in the U.S. Neither group seems to understand the economic truism: What you subsidize you get more of, and what you tax you get less of.
In Finland's case, they were literally paying others not to work. Meanwhile, as working Finns figured out, such a system would lead to massive tax increases. Even the OECD, not known as a bastion of free-market thought, in a study of Finland found that a guaranteed income to replace welfare (the ultimate goal of all basic income programs) would have to be "financed by increasing income taxation by nearly 30% or around 4% of GDP."
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
SEE ALSO HERE:
TITLE: The Government Has Already Tried Universal Basic Income. Here’s What Happened.
EXCERPT:
“In the 1970s, the (U.S.) government ran four random control experiments across six states to try the negative income tax, a similar policy proposal (to the basic income) that was popular at the time. In each test, the work disincentive effect was disastrous. For every $1,000 in added benefits to a family, there was an average reduction in $660 of wages from work.”
The socialist countries are touted as being so happy. It’s only because they have no idea that there is an alternative to subsistance living. My family in Italy are happy with their free medical and free education. And yet they are perplexed on why we can afford more than a teeny tiny apartment and more than one car.
It’s the big picture that escapes them. I’m trying to explain this to Millennials these days, and I hope I am getting through.
SOUNDS LIKE MINIMUM INCOME.
If the USA and American Left does this, for me, my plan will be to sell my business, move my money overseas, and then demonstrate to the government I live in poverty.
I’m tired of being a tax-donkey for these bastards. I am going “Cloward Piven” on them.
The Finnish deserve a hearty “Well, duh!” for their discovery.
The school system in Finland still teaches math apparently.
Because soaking everyone to pay for everyone does not work..thump..does not work..thump..does not work thump..does not work..
OK, but that’s Finland, where hard work is prized. Ask any leftist, and you’ll find out that they all are in favor of this because it takes money from productive members of society and gives it to those who vote democrat.
It is the stupidest of all ideas, even stupider than Bernie’s guaranteed $30,000 a year job, with benefits.
Sorry a$$holes, but nothing comes from nothing.
In addition, you don’t TEST a guaranteed UNIVERSAL income on 2,000 people. This should be obvious. 2,000 people is not UNIVERSAL. Trying this out on 2,000 people is not a valid test! There is no way to test a UNIVERSAL scheme except on ALL people. Elementary logic.
But they aren’t going to listen to me. This will be tried and implemented in radical extreme leftist environments, and it will fail, but leftists will demand it be strengthened, not terminated, and it will again fail miserably, but the liberals will just increase the numbers and keep it in place, and it will fail again.....repeat until doomsday.
“My family in Italy are happy with their free medical and free education. And yet they are perplexed on why we can afford more than a teeny tiny apartment and more than one car.”
As shown by the 2016 election, the bulk of Leftists live in high-density urban living. In recent discussions, I’ve notice that many of them truly don’t think viable lifestyles exist outside of world-class city cores - because tiny apartments & supporting services for them cost so much, they can’t conceive of lower-cost non-urban options being anything other than bare-subsistence POS scraping-by.
Indeed, they presumably think my 2400 sq ft house + 2 SUVs must be the result of squandering insane funds which they think would be better spent on free medical+education (and of course I’m too stupid to see this, so must be compelled). Content where they are, they can’t conceive that mine is my acceptable minimum AND costs less than their preference.
Really, it’s amazing - and true - that they think life outside major urban cores is just not worth living.
And yet they tout the virtue of “diversity”...
The EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) is basically the same as Guaranteed Basic Income.
The maximum payout is about $6,400 a Year (about $125 a Week) for someone with three or more Children.
To test, you take ALL the tax revenue gathered from the 2000 and then provide their “universal income” to all 2000 from that.
And periodically inform all what the tax revenue distribution is.
And adjust tax rates to ensure UBI payout consistency.
And send in the police to halt the ensuing riots.
That’s why some on the Right actually (grudgingly) approve of “universal income”: our bloated welfare system basically provides the same result - so may as well do away with the huge complex expensive bureaucracy, and just give everyone a “poverty line” income so nobody need go thru the agony nor cost of making it happen. ...at which point the Left would insist on _not_ implementing UBI, as it would lay bare the absurdity of “paying people to not work”, and deprive a million bureaucrats of lucrative jobs.
Just look at the Leftist outrage when POTUS Trump said there should a Work Requirement to receive Welfare.
How many were collecting the $678 and working “under the table” as well? How were they monitored?
The negative income tax was Milton Friedman’s idea. He thought it was the lesser of two evils, the other evil being welfare.
Remember the Greeks rioting and nearly bringing down the EU when their guaranteed pensions failed? I'm amazed the Finn's are not rioting in demand of their guaranteed free income!
The point of the UBI is that they are allowed to work. Work all you want, earn as much as you want. You still get the UBI.
I’m becoming increasingly aware that there are a LOT of people who truly believe “nobody should have to work”.
It’s an example of a real axiom: something believed so profoundly it’s almost impossible to explain to them why it’s wrong.
They’re so ingrained in a high-functioning culture that they can’t conceive of it not working - and thus cannot see the necessity of their contribution thereto.
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