The truth about guaranteed/universal basic income
Look. I don't have a lot of followers, but if any of my posts go viral, I hope it's this one.
People who do not have your best interests at heart or who believe those people will tell you that gbi/ubi is not feasible. That it's theft. That it will stagnate the population.
These are lies. Humans want to do things. What gbi/ubi does is put all the power in your hands. You are no longer a source of exploitable labor. There are a lot of people who are terrified by that thought.
There are limited studies so far, but the results so far show that only 2 groups rely solely on ubi/gbi when they have it. New parents and college students. It's unclear how many of these studies included people with disabilities, but any system that has no-strings-attached income is better than the current system for disability benefits in the US.
So why do you want need a basic income system? I want you to think about that thing you have always wanted to do, but couldn't because you had to work. Chances are that it's something you love to do, but can't monetize for various reasons. This becomes less relevant the more income you make. Maybe you want to take more picnics, or play with your kids, or take the time to practice your art. Whatever it is. A basic income system means you won't have to choose between doing the thing and paying bills or buying food. Basic income means that you don't have to worry about losing your job because there will be money. Maybe not as much money, but there will be money. Basic income can mean that many of us who are living paycheck to paycheck can actually manage to start saving money for emergencies. Basic income means that you won't have to consider selling your soul to the military to get an education and stable income.
Well that sounds too good to be true. How do we pay for this? The simple answer is taxes. But not all basic income tax plans are the same. If you have been paying attention to the democratic candidates, you may have heard Andrew Yang advocate for a gbi. While this is in and of itself a good first step, his plan is to fund it through sales tax. That's not gonna work. Why? The people who need a gbi the most spend 100%+ of their income. The people who need it the least spend less than 100% of their income. Under our current tax system people who make under the poverty line get almost all of their income taxes refunded. But that wouldn't happen in this system. This is pretty much the same reason the flat tax system many conservatives and Libertarians were proposing a few years ago wouldn't work. It puts all the tax stress on the lower classes.
So what systems would work? Progressive income taxes, corporate taxes, taxes on stock trades... Honestly there are many options but the least problematic would probably be a combination of several taxes to spread out the burden. Even then, there might be a few businesses and people who take their business elsewhere (to another country) to avoid these taxes. Do not fear the loss of businesses. If a business leaves, we will either feel it or not. If we feel it, there will be a void, voids get filled. If we don't feel it, we never needed them to begin with. Another outcome is that bigger corporations might invest in their employees more to avoid higher tax brackets. The biggest thing that all of these taxes do is force rich people and corporations to invest in the economy and society. This is what prevents economic stagnation, which we are currently feeling in the US. While many corporations will bitch and moan, it will benefit them, too.
How will it benefit them, too? Well you know how millenials are being blamed for the deaths of various industries? It's because we're collectively poorer than previous generations. We can't spend money on your products, if we have no money to spend. If we can't spend money on products corporations go out of business. That's what economic stagnation is. And it's bad.
So what does all this mean? Gbi is a win-win for everyone except for the 1%. But it's not going to be framed that way because the 1%... The people controlling corporations are going to lose their exploitable labor. And they don't want that.
On a separate related note, currently Amazon is paying minimal taxes while a lot of its workforce has to rely on tax-funded welfare programs. That means Amazon is not just exploiting its workforce, but the entire workforce in the US and the US government. If Amazon was forced to choose between paying an actual fair share of taxes or paying its workers more, I can guarantee which they would choose. But the employees win either way.
On another separate related note. Gbi also means that workers can more readily unionize and protest. Which means better working conditions and benefits. Seriously. We need to start pushing basic income systems.
