At some point within the next decade or two we need a UBI, period. Age discrimination in employment is fucking endemic right now but has been made so hard to prove that it’s done with impunity, at least in the US. If you’re over 50 and get laid off I hope you’re the entrepreneurial sort (and have the skills/resources/health to be your own boss) because otherwise you’re F’d in the A.
I don’t know. UBI is pushed by Silicon Valley and I am not convinced that they have our best interest at heart.
The clue is gonna be when they calculate the net amount of money spent on people is lower :) because healthcare, for example, is most expensive when people get old. Young people gonna be like wooohhh $10,000 USD UBI! and old people are just gonna have to die.
Well, it could be age-adjusted of course.
Or have a sane and comprehensive healthcare system.
Really UBI and healthcare should not be linked. If healthcare were a more rational system then you would not need to have UBI age indexed simply because older people spend more on healthcare.
This. The point about a public or publicly-funded health care system is that it should provide health care. Replacing it with a cash allowance is exactly what the people who want to kill it have been advocating for years. The allowance will never be enough, it will grow more slowly than costs rise; if anything, it will cause costs to rise.
Actually that’s a better solution, you’re right.
I finally got my W2 and did my taxes. It was exactly as I predicted. My salary didn’t change from last year, my taxable income was under $1000 difference. Last year I got a $3900 refund. This year I owe $18. My paycheck didn’t change. What changed was the removals of the deductions for each member of my family which increased my taxable income by $20000.
The republicans raised my taxes.
But Wlllapactus, how the fuck else is Jeff Bezos supposed to afford his 5923th mistress, and his 4,213 house? We need to sacrifice to make that happen!
Is that the house where he swims in a tuxedo, or the house where he exercises in a tuxedo?
He dons a fresh new tuxedo every 4 hours. Because what is he? A farmer?
Now imagine what it’ll be like when the temporary cuts expire!
I think I mentioned up thread how my accountant had done some preliminary work with some of his clients and figured that my taxes would go up. I kinda figured they would anyway this year with my business closing and with losing my last kid as a dependent. But I think that loss of personal tax exemptions is going to hit a lot of people that have several kids pretty hard.
Not sure if my taxes are going up just yet, I think it might be under 1k difference, maybe… but it sure as hell is not on a notecard, and I do have to itemize.
You know what kind of tax reform actually would fit on a post card and be very easy to deal with? An income tax where ALL your income is taxable, with no exemptions, deductions, complications or whatever, at all, and then a VERY progressive set of marginal rates: no tax at all for people below the 30th percentile, a modest (say 12% or 15%) for amounts ranging from the 30th percentile to 80th (or so), and then several tiers over that, 90th percentile, 95th, 99th, 99.9th and so forth, up to the AOC 70% on amounts over $10 million type level.
You plug in your total gross income, look up your tax on a chart or app, done. No other BS at all. The chart or app takes care of all the calculation crap.
If the marginal rates were sufficiently progressive, it would be great.
That makes sense. So on that note be careful where you float that idea. Rich people can afford assassins.
The only kind of assassins the people in the 80 to 90 percentile group will be able to hire are the incompetent ones on Craigs list, and that’ assuming they don’t live on the coast sharing a flat with 4 to 5 other professionals in order to afford rent.
That works if all you want from a tax code is progressive results. But the US also uses the tax code as a way to incentivize pro-social behavior, like giving money to charity, finding day-care so you can return to work, or improving the energy efficiency of your home.
If you don’t need an incentive to do those things, well, just don’t itemize your expenses. Your return won’t fit on a postcard but it won’t be that complicated either.
But some people really do want those incentives. For some people, the incentive is actually one of the main reasons for doing these things. In which case, extra paperwork is pretty much inevitable.
Why do we incentives giving to charity? Giving to charity should be enough. People should not be able to avoid their tax bill by giving to ‘charities’.
I am all for incentiving certain behaviors, but that is not one I am in favor. It’s just another way for the wealth to avoid paying their dues.
Well it was also a means to encourage buying and building homes, and that activity has a lot a push throughout the entire economy.
The charity piece probably driven to help encourage people to donate instead of sit on mounts of wealth or just pass it on to kids. It’s designed to encourage behavior.
Everyone has a pet project, want to see more giving, want to keep the farms open, want to encourage people to buy homes… in the end, the list gets pretty damn long.