@WuMargaret @MattMerk I believe the idea was originally Milton Freedman’s, who was no friend of the workers. I think it would have to be set double or even triple the current median. Then we could address shutting down all the bullshit jobs and doing all the necessary but not profitable things that currently aren’t being done.
@francis @WuMargaret Friedman’s negative income tax bracket idea is predicated on the dumb idea of incentivizing the “lazy poor” to get a better paying job that would subsidize their weekly “negative income tax” payout. He did want to cut the people administering welfare systems out of government, but he wanted to constantly cut government programs. This seems like another area that could be a fruitful discussion, if only to avoid Chicago School ideology.
@francis @WuMargaret Friedman was indeed no friend of the workers. (He was a monster, in fact, but that’s another expansive topic of conversation.) All I’ve ever read about his ideas on the subject had to do with implementing a negative income tax bracket. If you are below a certain threshold of income, you’d get a subsidy. Most of the ideas on UBI I’ve heard have been more like Alaska’s petroleum payouts, which are treated more like dividends.