To provide a guaranteed basic income (UBI) for all citizens, ensuring economic stability and reducing inequality. The program will be funded through a simplified tax code, reduced government spending, and automation-driven revenue, ensuring that it is a net positive for the economy without penalizing U.S. companies.
Policy Focus:
1. Simplified Tax Code and Reduced Government Spending:
Streamlining the Tax Code:
Implement a simplified tax structure, reducing loopholes, eliminating unnecessary deductions, and focusing on fair, transparent tax brackets. This will make tax filing easier, reduce compliance costs, and ensure that businesses and individuals pay their fair share without burdensome complexity.
Efficient Government Spending:
Cut wasteful government spending by conducting annual audits of all federal programs, focusing on eliminating inefficiencies and streamlining non-essential functions. The savings will be redirected to fund UBI and other critical programs. Key areas for cuts include redundant administrative costs and non-priority defense or infrastructure spending.
2. Funding UBI through Automation-Driven Revenue:
Revenue from Automation:
As automation increases productivity and drives down labor costs across industries, the savings generated by these efficiency gains will be taxed and used to fund the UBI program. Companies benefiting from automation technologies will be taxed on automation-related profits, ensuring that the economic gains from automation are shared with society.
Corporate Incentives for Innovation:
Companies will be incentivized to participate in the UBI program by receiving tax credits for investing in automation technologies that improve productivity and reduce costs. This will encourage businesses to innovate without penalizing them for operating within the U.S.
Automation Tax:
A modest tax on automation-driven profits will help fund the UBI program. The tax will target companies that see substantial cost savings from automation technologies, ensuring that the economic benefits of automation contribute to funding public welfare without stifling innovation.
3. Universal Basic Income (UBI) Implementation:
Monthly UBI Payments:
A guaranteed monthly payment will be provided to every citizen, ensuring that all individuals have the financial resources needed to meet basic needs such as housing, food, and healthcare. The UBI will be non-conditional and universal, meaning that everyone receives the same support, regardless of income.
Income Level Adjustments:
The UBI will be adjusted based on economic conditions, with potential increases to account for inflation and changes in cost of living. The goal is to ensure that the UBI remains relevant and provides real support to citizens.
4. Corporate Participation and Economic Growth:
Incentivizing Corporate Participation:
Rather than penalizing companies, the government will reward businesses that contribute to the UBI by funding research into automation technologies and providing direct investments into innovative projects. These companies will also receive tax relief for participating in the UBI program, which could help offset costs while driving innovation.
Job Creation and Economic Stability:
By funding UBI through automation and business participation, the program will allow companies to reinvest in growth and job creation, particularly in technology, sustainability, and healthcare industries. Automation will drive new jobs that are higher-skill and higher-wage, providing individuals with the opportunity to move into better career opportunities.
5. Ensuring Long-Term Sustainability:
Revenue Diversification:
In addition to automation-driven revenue, additional sources of income for the UBI fund will come from financial transaction taxes, luxury taxes, and modest taxes on high-net-worth individuals. This diversified funding base will help ensure the program’s long-term sustainability.
Gradual Implementation:
The UBI program will be introduced gradually, beginning with targeted groups such as low-income citizens or those displaced by automation. Over time, the program will be expanded to cover the entire population.
Potential Impact:
Financial Security for All Citizens:
UBI will provide guaranteed financial support to all U.S. citizens, ensuring that basic needs are met and reducing financial stress. This will increase economic security, particularly for low-income households, and help foster a more equitable society.
Stimulation of Economic Growth:
With lower taxes and UBI payments, individuals will have more disposable income, leading to increased consumer spending and higher demand for goods and services. This will drive economic activity, benefiting businesses and creating jobs, especially in high-tech and green industries.
Reduced Inequality:
UBI will provide direct support to those most in need, helping to reduce poverty and economic inequality. This will also enable people to focus on personal growth, invest in education, and pursue career development without the constant pressure of financial instability.
Encouraging Innovation and Productivity:
By taxing automation-driven profits, the government ensures that businesses benefit from automation technologies while also contributing to the common good. Companies will be incentivized to innovate and improve productivity without being penalized, creating a balance between economic growth and social responsibility.
Long-Term Fiscal Responsibility:
The savings from government spending cuts and tax revenue from automation will contribute to debt reduction and help make the UBI program financially sustainable over time. The program will ultimately lead to a more efficient government that uses taxpayer funds wisely, benefiting everyone.
Conclusion:
The Universal Basic Income (UBI) policy is designed to provide economic security and reduce inequality by ensuring that every citizen has access to the financial resources they need. Through a combination of simplified tax policies, reduced government spending, and automation-driven revenue, the program will be self-sustaining and beneficial for the entire economy. By encouraging business innovation, job creation, and global competitiveness, this policy will foster a more equitable, dynamic society, ensuring that all Americans have the opportunity to thrive in the face of automation and economic change.
How would equality be possible if UBI for a single person is the same as for a family of four?
Or would each member of the family also get the same UBI which they could then pool together and be much more prosperous than the single person?
Then what happens when those taxed to pay for UBI begin hiding increasing amounts of their wealth overseas or simply pack their bags and leave the country themselves?
Cuba is a fine example.
You cannot tax the future, this was made perfectly clear by Thomas Sowell and others.
And also by the horrific famines seen in China, the Soviet Union and other similarly failed experiments with socialism.
Each member of that family of four gets an individual UBI, allowing for more stay at home parents and encouraging higher birth rates while also eliminating child tax credits, etc. It is better than subsidizing child care and SNAP benefits and allows for a family to thrive with a single breadwinner.
There are some additional points you can add to the UBI that would make it less prone to Tax fraud evasion briefly hit upon by the original poster, such as dramatically simplifying the tax code through a flat tax and taking away 401 C statuses and eliminating tax shelters.
Elimination of much of the social welfare programs currently in place like WIC, SNAP and etc. and replacing it with the direct payments of UBI would give people more individual choice on food, housing and healthcare options instead of having massive government agencies dedicated to each one.
I understand the why of it but I think giving people free money will result in negative behaviors such as reduced motivation to better oneself and abusing the system.
For example, I used to have a neighbor in Wilmington, DE that was a single mother collecting welfare, disability and food stamps who lived in a section 8 house with her two children. We became very good friends and she eventually shared her financial situation with me during a conversation about the economy.
She sold her foodstamps for 1/3 their value and took that money plus a chunk of her other benefits and used it to purchase cocaine which she then cooked into crack which gave her 5 to 10 times the amount of sellable product. Her nephews then dealt the narcotics and gave her a substantial portion of the proceeds. When I added it all up I realized she was pulling in more income than me per year working as a Software Engineer for a credit card company. If I remember correctly it was like 15% more than my income. I was shocked and also dismayed to realize how badly the system was being gamed by her and people like her. Her house which was larger than mine only cost her $85/month through section 8 but even if she paid the same rent as me she would still come out ahead.
Giving people money is not the answer.
Basic economics proves definitively that overtaxing the wealthiest results in them moving their wealth out of the country and our economy making it worse.
However, I do believe that hunger needs to be outlawed. Nobody should be hungry in this country.
I like this a lot, but people have obvious concerns about this being overly socialist and communist.
If it is done correctly it actually cuts the majority of our social welfare programs and spending making us LESS Socialist and Communist in practice.
You mention simplifying the Tax Code, but to really make this fiscally reasonable, we need to pair it with a “Flat Tax” that does not exempt anyone from from paying, even low-income individuals. No special taxes or tax-cuts for businesses, eliminate Non-Profit 401C exemptions and eliminate all social welfare programs.
The UBI has to be given to EVERYONE that is a citizen or legal worker residing inside the United States. This ensures that there is no financial incentive to make less money (for fear of losing UBI benefit). The UBI needs to replace government spending on child care subsidies, SNAP, MEDICAID, housing assistance, and every other social welfare program. This is actually better for people currently receiving these benefits because it would not dictate what type of housing you choose (no more HUD housing), what kind of food you could purchase, what day care you use or limit your options on Medical Care and treatment. All of these programs have income caps that discourages people from seeking work or raising their income level that is a hindrance to tax revenue.
The UBI would encourage more families to have a stay-at-home parent to take care of children. This is because families would have significantly less financial pressure to have two outside incomes, and would encourage part-time or work from home for the parent taking care of the children. Multiple studies have shown a parent in the home full time is critical in early childhood development and leads to better educational outcomes and decreases infectious disease transmission rates. It would eliminate the “need” for any type of childhood vaccination schedule and would encourage healthier eating habits throughout the Country.
Below, I have broken down some theoretical numbers based on flat tax rates, UBI amounts and the amount of individual income that would be the break-even point for the system. Everyone making less than that amount would be paying less than what they are contributing and everyone making more than that amount would be creating excess tax revenue. This does not take into account businesses and any foreign individuals that would pay into the system but would not be receiving a UBI in return.
Column 1
Column 2
Column 3
Tax Rate
UBI
Earned Income threshold to break even with UBI
15%
10,000
67,000
20,000
135,000
30,000
200,000
40,000
267,000
50,000
334,000
.
20%
10,000
50,000
20,000
100,000
30,000
150,000
40,000
200,000
50,000
250,000
.
25%
10,000
40,000
20,000
80,000
30,000
120,000
40,000
160,000
50,000
200,000
The UBI without the flat tax or without cutting out other social welfare spending would be a horrendous idea.
So many of the problems you outline here revolve around the overly-complicated social welfare systems we have in place right now. Those are bad programs that encourage people to never get off the system and to continually come up with new ways to game the system. That is why replacing all of those programs with an “un-gameable” system where there are no incentives to not work and there are no egregious loopholes and rules that keep other people who need help from getting is a good idea.
It is a concept that can be phased in overtime, as we also fix the rest of our currency issues.
I support flat tax. I was a campaign volunteer on the Jerry Brown presidential campaign for 1992 because of his 13% flat tax proposal and campaign finance reform policy. Too bad for him that his own party sank his campaign by paying the media to black it out and propping up Perot to take Brown’s voters away. He shoulda ran as independent and I even went so far as to tell him that personally.
Anyway back on topic, yes we need to avoid communism, socialism, marxism and social marxism that replaces class with race. I’ll have to think over the idea of UBI being less aligned with those bad ideologies then the current benefit programs. I might have trouble swallowing this but I’ll give it a try.
This WOULD have been possible BEFORE we let in so many uneducated illegal aliens. As of now, it is a big mistake to have this until we straighten out America’s citizenship issues, along with push for automation.
I read it and I’m not sold. In recent years I have had my livelihood and career obliterated by government policies (pandemic). I’m too old to start a new career so while UBI is somewhat tempting I wouldn’t want to be forced to rely on the same government that has ruined my life. And this has happened twice now. My former career in electronics was destroyed by NAFTA. For me the real solution to our economic problems is to get government out of the equation.
Less government will benefit everyone.
The political pendulum is always swinging and some point it will go back to the tyrannical left and they will no doubt weaponize UBI to punish all who disagree with them. I rather not be dependent on a government program only to have it yanked out from under me because I attend church or simply because I have an unaffiliated voter registration etc.
As for technological job loss the solution is for the people to penalize companies that engage in this practice and boycott and defund them through class action lawsuits and state level regulations.
Never before has a common person had so much power at their disposal. The power to affect actual change by altering their shopping habits. This power needs to be harnessed and utilized by each and everyone of us as much as possible to make our voices heard.
I’m still all for a flat tax. This alone will likely improve the finances of all citizens more than UBI possibly would.