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If you've spent so much time on this discussion, you should know that only people near and below the poverty line actually receive that money, the rest have it absorbed into their own taxes.



Good luck selling that one pal

I love the idea of basic income, but proponents need to a) make much, much better economic arguments, b) stop being so afraid of numbers, and c) get a dose of political realism. We do not live in a Star Trek universe when you only need to convince one wise leader like Captain Picard or Janeway.

If you're American or based in the USA, that means accepting the fact that a large chunk of the population adheres (consciously or not) to a particularly stark version of Calvinism that says wealth is a sign of God's favor, poverty is a punishment for sin, and a whole truckload of authoritarian correlates. Considerations of rationality, economic efficiency, and equity all factor into policy discussions in the US, but are by no means dominant - hence the perennial proposals to impose drug tests on welfare recipients despite the abundant evidence that this is a complete waste of time and money in the places where it has already been tried.


>only people near and below the poverty line actually receive that money, the rest have it absorbed into their own taxes.

This will never fly politically. You think lower-middle class people (the vast majority of the country) are going to agree to that?




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