RE: The alternative to the living wage.
May 15, 2014 at 12:42 am
(This post was last modified: May 15, 2014 at 12:42 am by FlyingNarwhal.)
(May 14, 2014 at 9:02 pm)Heywood Wrote:(May 14, 2014 at 8:48 pm)FlyingNarwhal Wrote: How do we pay for this? I just did a rough calculation of 25,000 (dollars paid per individual) by 300 million (rounded down total population of U.S.) and came up with $7,500,000,000,000 per year. I like the idea, just would like to know how this doesn't put us further in debt.
$25,000 is the exemption. A universal basic income would be about half....so now we are talking about 3.25 trillion a year which is close to what we spend now. Because there is no minimum wage, business profits would be higher which translates into even more income for the government to re-distribute. Taxes might still have to be raised, but such a system is not untenable.
Ok that sounds doable. As your explaining it, I'm liking the idea of it more and more. I think that this kills two (or maybe several) birds with one stone. It gives a universal safety net, allowing people to not worry about hitting complete bottom and autonomy in their career choice. It also provides for the fact that their will always be a certain amount of the population that will try and do the least amount of work possible, which if I'm getting this correctly could give employees better leverage in determining their wages. If everyone automatically has enough money to live minimally without a job even if they choose to work, and a portion of the population chooses not to work, that means there would be a higher demand for employees. McDonald's can pay $8.00 an hour and not give a raise because they have their employees by the balls, there is a lot of people looking for work and only so many jobs. If I have the money to walk out any time and not worry about starving, and if there are less people willing to work, it means at the end of the year the cashier can leverage a raise out of his employer.
(May 14, 2014 at 9:47 pm)Cato Wrote:(May 14, 2014 at 8:48 pm)FlyingNarwhal Wrote: How do we pay for this? I just did a rough calculation of 25,000 (dollars paid per individual) by 300 million (rounded down total population of U.S.) and came up with $7,500,000,000,000 per year. I like the idea, just would like to know how this doesn't put us further in debt.
Show your work.
Not the calculation, but the basis for your assumptions.
It was just a question, I just wanted to know how/if it didn't add to the national tax burden.
