We are disagreeing, if only insofar as that I disagree that a UBI can be universal and also functionally equivalent to an income-adjusted tax credit. Or at least, I think it is disingenuous to call that a UBI. And I think that if a UBI genuinely gives money to people making more than ~$120K a year without doing this whole bait-and-switch, it’s a terrible policy relative to alternatives (e.g., income-adjusted tax credits). (Which to be clear is not even to suggest that I think income-adjusted tax credits are a good policy; I simply think that they are almost strictly superior to a UBI, except maybe for political tractability or other non-policy reasons.)
I think we are not understanding UBI to mean the same thing. UBI is a government policy that distributes funds to all people equally, through redistributive taxes that are high enough for the wealthy to pay for the full amount. I don’t think there’s any bait-and-switch in that everybody should know from the start that people making 120+ per year will make net-less income.
The breakeven point should be somewhere around 50-70K I think.
The fundamental issue (unless I’m misunderstanding) with tax-credit is that if you’re poor and have not made a high income, you can’t get any benefit from them. It doesn’t accomplish the fundamental BIG (Basic Income Guarantee) like UBI or Negative income tax.
We are disagreeing, if only insofar as that I disagree that a UBI can be universal and also functionally equivalent to an income-adjusted tax credit. Or at least, I think it is disingenuous to call that a UBI. And I think that if a UBI genuinely gives money to people making more than ~$120K a year without doing this whole bait-and-switch, it’s a terrible policy relative to alternatives (e.g., income-adjusted tax credits). (Which to be clear is not even to suggest that I think income-adjusted tax credits are a good policy; I simply think that they are almost strictly superior to a UBI, except maybe for political tractability or other non-policy reasons.)
I think we are not understanding UBI to mean the same thing. UBI is a government policy that distributes funds to all people equally, through redistributive taxes that are high enough for the wealthy to pay for the full amount. I don’t think there’s any bait-and-switch in that everybody should know from the start that people making 120+ per year will make net-less income.
The breakeven point should be somewhere around 50-70K I think.
The fundamental issue (unless I’m misunderstanding) with tax-credit is that if you’re poor and have not made a high income, you can’t get any benefit from them. It doesn’t accomplish the fundamental BIG (Basic Income Guarantee) like UBI or Negative income tax.