The simplest welfare program imaginable

[Heracleum Persicum]

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Pay People for Being Alive

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. . no strings attached. Every month, every Swiss person would receive a check from the government, no matter how rich or poor, how hardworking or lazy, how old or young. Poverty would disappear.

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[noddy]

we have had a few arguments here over the years on getting rid of most of the government and just splitting the tax money up equally as a guaranteed minimum wage.

personally i think its a great idea but the authoritarian parts of the left and right both hate it equally for different reasons so its a non starter.

my utopia would be a 10% income tax and 10% gst tax that gets distributed as direct payments to everyone, it has a self correction in the sense that too many bludgers would lower the payments and thusly encourage people to seek better incomes.

its a massive improvement on the tax burden i currently carry.

it would also require a fundamentalist ruthless attitude to zero public debt, another reason its a non starter.

[Azrael]

we have had a few arguments here over the years on getting rid of most of the government and just splitting the tax money up equally as a guaranteed minimum wage.

personally i think its a great idea

I agree. Basic Income would be a great idea, wouldn't have the disincentive affect of means-tested programs and would be relatively easy to administer.

but the authoritarian parts of the left and right both hate it equally for different reasons so its a non starter.

I think that there is hope. The new generation (younger than 50) are a lot more practical.

my utopia would be a 10% income tax and 10% gst tax that gets distributed as direct payments to everyone, it has a self correction in the sense that too many bludgers would lower the payments and thusly encourage people to seek better incomes.

its a massive improvement on the tax burden i currently carry.

That probably would be an improvement. It would be more efficient. The present system rewards playing games.

it would also require a fundamentalist ruthless attitude to zero public debt, another reason its a non starter.

I'm not sure that's absolutely necessary. Debt, when used responsibly, can be very productive. Alexander Hamilton was an advocate.

[Simple Minded]

we have had a few arguments here over the years on getting rid of most of the government and just splitting the tax money up equally as a guaranteed minimum wage.

personally i think its a great idea

I agree. Basic Income would be a great idea, wouldn't have the disincentive affect of means-tested programs and would be relatively easy to administer.

but the authoritarian parts of the left and right both hate it equally for different reasons so its a non starter.

I think that there is hope. The new generation (younger than 50) are a lot more practical.

my utopia would be a 10% income tax and 10% gst tax that gets distributed as direct payments to everyone, it has a self correction in the sense that too many bludgers would lower the payments and thusly encourage people to seek better incomes.

its a massive improvement on the tax burden i currently carry.

That probably would be an improvement. It would be more efficient. The present system rewards playing games.

it would also require a fundamentalist ruthless attitude to zero public debt, another reason its a non starter.

I'm not sure that's absolutely necessary. Debt, when used responsibly, can be very productive. Alexander Hamilton was an advocate.

Interesting concept.

Reminds me of the old example:
You and 99 of your friends get a common credit card. You all agree to only buy what you can afford, and pay 1% of the total balance each month. When the first irresponsible person figures out he can buy stuff at a discount of 99%..... When the first person gets resentful of paying for someone else........

I have long thought that the first president who during a State of the Union Address hands out a fluorescent orange sheet of paper to every member of congress, and says "On one side of the piece of paper you hold is our new tax code. It will replace every one of the ten of thousands of pages in our current tax code. It totals less than 300 words. Make it law within a week and I will sign it." and then spent 5 minutes reading it to the American public would go down in history as our greatest president.

His own party as well as the opposition party would skewer him, but it would be a very interesting week.

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