Minimum guaranteed income (MGI) was a popular idea in the 1960s and 1970s and at this point in the game it is almost an inevitable reality according to some. What MGI is a negative tax in the form of a check to people from the government. Here is the way I see it. We could set the amount at say the poverty line, and give every individual over the age of 18 and not claimed as a dependent a check for $10,000. 1) Social wellfare has become part of the equation and is not going away. Its cost will likely increase. 2) There are literally 100s of social wellfare programs, all administered by different government agencies and departments. There is a shit ton of redundancy, waste, and inefficiency because of this. The requirements are burdonsome on both users of the programs and administrators. The lack of communication and data sharing between agencies has caused a tremendous potential for fraud and duplication of benefits. 3) We have a pretty accurate idea of what these programs will cost the nation. So what can we do differently? Where can we be smarter? To me a MGI plan would at a minimum obsolete all the bureaucracy. We could replace the big government bloat of thousands of program administrators with a piece of software. We would pick up other efficiencies as the MGI would go a long way to eliminating the game playing that plagues the various social wellfare programs. There is a lot of data which suggests an MGI program would be at a minimum revenue neutral and may spur economic activity as the producers now have more money to spend as well. Ideally, we would tie this up with Social Security reform and do away with portions of the payroll tax. This would help the cashflow of businesses, spur small business investment, and put more money in employee pockets as well. So I guess my question is this.... Since total repeal of social wellfare spending is not a political reality, do you an MGI as a smarter alternative to the vast array of programs we have in place currently.
There would be a lot of people who would blow the $10 Grand the first month on booze, drugs, gambling and prostitutes. Then they would be back with their hands out.
No. I can't see how it is supposed to work. A handout with no strings from tax dollars to everyone? Then eliminate all social welfare agencies? It seems like a recipe for chaos. There is no reason in the world to give working people money for nothing. And giving it to retired or disabled people assumes that they all have the same issues and it all costs the same. Giving it to the unemployed removes incentives for getting work. Meanwhile there is no safety net for those who this arbitrary figure is inadequate, those who are robbed of it, and those who spend it unwisely. Nobody can live for $10K in this country. It seems like the worst of all worlds. I agree that we need a program to eliminate duplication of effort in this area and streamline the process, but that could mean divesting the states of much of their portions and the conservatives will not support that. There seems no reason that there can't be consolidation of federal programs, though. But nothing is going to be cheap or simple.
