I have been hearing this fantastic narrative spread about how "Basic Income" will save the US from itself. I happen to always consider the phrase "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." This is one of those things right? Well,
not according to our Progressives in the US.
So what is BI or "Basic Income"?
According to the narrative, BI is a check the Government releases to everyone just for being a Citizen. The narrative claims that BI will alleviate the need for all other forms of Government welfare, even replacing the need for programs like Unemployment and Social Security. The narrative claims that everyone gets BI for doing nothing but being born and holding citizenship. Everyone from Donald Trump and Bill Gates, to the unemployed Electrician, to would be getting BI just like Carl the heroin junkie and Mary the single mom. Everyone is treated exactly the same with a cash deposit ever year. Sounds good so far right? What could be more fair than everyone and anyone in the US getting a paycheck for doing nothing but breathing in the great US air?
We could argue separately about what BI rate should be, but in the
speeches I have heard it's between 30K and 50K. I'll use 30K just to be
simple and not blamed of using an inflated number to frighten people
from contemplating. Why do they use those numbers? To argue that everyone can have a basic standard of living with BI and working would be a choice and chance for extra income.
What is extremely important to note is
the fact that 30K in Detroit will be a decent living wage. Take that
same 30K to Nashville TN, Miami FL, Austin TX, Fresno CA, or countless
other cities and you could starve to death on BI. Costs of living are a
huge problem to this narrative, yet it gets ignored.
Like me, you will probably ask "Well where does the 30K a year for everyone come from?" I believe this is a fair question. BI for everyone in the US would come with a price tag of 9 Trillion Dollars, if we round our population down to 300 million. This is roughly half of our total GDP. It's nearly 3 times the total tax revenue for 2015. We can certainly argue about tax code problems in the US, but Federal taxes even with tax havens corrected would not come up with the difference.
Total US Spending in 2015 was 4Trillian dollars, and 1/8th of that (half a billion) was money we did not have so had to borrow. So how we are going to come up with a 9 Trillion dollar gift to every citizen of the USA? Remember, this would not include what we need for Defense, Education, and all of the other expenses Government holds but only BI.
Well according to the people spreading the BI narrative, we are not creating new taxes but replacing poorly managed programs currently in use. Medicaid was replaced by ACA, and this new BI will replace remaining programs like Government Housing Programs, Food Stamps, and everything else. Really? We are going to move to just 2 massive programs instead of all the various stuff we have today? Wow, another WIN for society right?
How do we get better than fair to everyone, simple, and Free?
I have already shown that the money does not exist, and quite frankly have no idea how anyone could come up with such a massive pile of cash. There are lots of tax loopholes, but fixing the tax problems does not create that much money. Further, I argue here that fixing the tax problem causes a massive economic collapse.
Putting it rather bluntly, the people spreading this narrative are attempting to defy basic economics. Making matters worse, they are also painting people as another species. This is a typical theme with the progressive narratives by the way, painting all humans as altruistic hard working people. If everyone just closed their eyes and clicked their heals together while chanting...
Why do people need programs today for things like Housing and food assistance? If you assume that everyone on an aid program is a good hard working person who would work hard if they could only find a job, this would be a really good idea. Reallocating money so that people can shop for better lives would make economic sense. It could give people the chance to live the American dream, because we are all very hard working and industrious right? Well, that's no more true than being able to cancel a couple programs to pay for it.
There is very measurable percentage of people who are not hard working and "just need a job". Current statistics show that approximately 2% of Welfare programs are used for fraudulent purposes and this is just what gets reported to the US Department of Labor. Contrary to the narrative, there are people who would rather party than work, people with addictions to drugs and alcohol, people who are sociopaths and being taught YOLO (You Only Live Once) and believe what they are taught by mass marketing over mass media.
These people have problems which usually get much worse with large cash deposits. Not better.
It should take you about half a second to register that removing programs like WIC and Government Housing can't happen. BI intended for these purposes will be spent on drugs, alcohol, etc.. Children who only eat today because of WIC will either starve to death or we extend WIC.
We can safely say that the whole BI argument is BS.
