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Comment by paxys | Hacker News Reader

I just posted the number that entitlement programs currently use, and it is under $1T. So you're basically saying "it's easy to implement UBI, we just need an extra 2.4T/yr lying around somewhere" (which is equivalent to 1/3 our total budget). Scale it up to realistic numbers (no one is surviving on just $13K/yr, plenty of people need more than just average support e.g. for medical conditions) and you're easily talking $5T+.

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It wouldn't be very comfortable, but yes - it's possible to live on that amount. Many people on disability do so today. If it's not enough and you're unable to work, you'd have to rely on savings, family, or charity. And yes, the idea would for UBI to account for over 50% of current government spending and to get rid of most existing government programs (except core functions like military and law enforcement). That’s why I ended my original comment with "it would require a total rethinking of the role of government."

By the way, I think you're overlooking the strongest criticism of my UBI proposal: that it would reduce the incentive to work, potentially lowering labor participation and, in turn, government tax revenue, which could make the system unsustainable. It's hard to predict whether that would be a real problem or not.

How can you not see that if everyone gets X amount of UBI, the cost of everything goes up until you can no longer live on X.

It is such basic economics I just can't believe we even have these debates.

It is something I would have thought of when I lived with my parents as a clueless teenager.

That's not how it works - inflation is a function of money supply, not of how it is distributed. Do you consider Milton Friedman a "clueless teenager"? I admire your self-assurance by the way...

If everyone gets $13k a year the price of everything will go up until people will no longer be able to live on $13k a year. Then you have to raise the UBI amount and then raise even more money by the government. Repeat.

To me, it is a non-starter unless you also had a massive housing build out to drive the cost of housing/rent down. We can't do that now though so that is also a non-starter.

Then even if you did massively build out housing, most the UBI will still be captured by rent/housing as some areas will become extremely low status and people will use the UBI to move to higher status areas.

All UBI really does if everyone gets it is change what $0 means. Not to mention, if you replace what people are getting currently from the government with UBI they are getting totally fucked. People on disability would get completely fucked since they are getting a basic income now but even though the UBI would be more in total, that will just purchase much less if everyone is getting the same amount.

Or we'd have to raise taxes by 2.4T dollars. Which isn't as extreme as it sounds, since we're at the same time giving everybody money. If 2/3 of the amount of UBI is paid for with increased taxes, the average taxpayer will come out ahead. "We're raising your taxes by $10,000" doesn't sound as bad as when accompanied by "and here's a cheque for $13,000". Bill Gates' taxes will go up a lot more than $13,000, but the average taxpayer will see a very small benefit.

The other benefit of raising taxes is that it will control inflation.

And $13K/year isn't enough to live on, yet many disabled people do just that. 4 people each getting $13K can probably live together on that. Living alone is a luxury.

And with UBI, there are no limitations on you supplementing your income on the side. One of the biggest criticisms of UBI is that everybody will stop working. If UBI is $13K/year pretty much only those who are unable to work will not supplement their income with work.

Or I could just keep my money instead of sending it to the government just so they can send it back to me. Cut out the middleman.

That's called a negative income tax, and it can be almost the same as a UBI. There are pros and cons. For instance, if you lose your job, you have to wait until next April before you get your NIT money.

> no one is surviving on just $13K/yr

There are many countries around the world where that would be normal, or even a sign of affluence.

We aren’t talking about many countries around the world, just one

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