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BIG will cause massive rises in taxes for those in work (at least 50% income tax or equivalent), cripple the automatic stabilisers (which now only have tax to work with) and generate a huge rise in resentment from those working against those that don't work. Which means that it would be immediately eliminated politically - just like unemployment benefit has been.
And that's before you get onto the technical arguments of how you maintain the value of the currency.
That's why it is a silly idea. It only works in a world without real human beings in it.
People want to work for a living and want to be seen to be working for a living by their peers where their peers expect them to be working. So give them what they want and what will work in practice.
2 comments:
Philip's op-ed is MMT at its worse.
My fact-based rebuttal to Philip's conservative claims: http://hillbillyhumanist.blogspot.com/2014/06/would-basic-income-guarantee-big.html
BIG will cause massive rises in taxes for those in work (at least 50% income tax or equivalent), cripple the automatic stabilisers (which now only have tax to work with) and generate a huge rise in resentment from those working against those that don't work. Which means that it would be immediately eliminated politically - just like unemployment benefit has been.
And that's before you get onto the technical arguments of how you maintain the value of the currency.
That's why it is a silly idea. It only works in a world without real human beings in it.
People want to work for a living and want to be seen to be working for a living by their peers where their peers expect them to be working. So give them what they want and what will work in practice.
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