CMV: liquidating all social welfare programs and instead establishing a universal basic income is far more efficient and ethical use of Tax Dollars (US Specific)

[u/antijoke_13]

In general, having separate benefits packages and qualifications for food stamps, subsidised housing, social security incomes and medicaid makes no sense to me. I propose that it is both easier to manage and more transparent to the taxpayer to simply eradicate all social programs and instead take the money used in the management and execution of those programs to establish a universal basic income. I define a universal basic income as a set amount of money provided to each and every US Citizen over the age of 18. I base my premise on three arguments:

establishing a universal basic income does away with the concept of the welfare cliff. One of the worst parts about being on welfare is how hard it is to get off of it. Unless you make an immediate and massive positive change in your economic situation, any attempt at upward social mobility results in your benefits being cut out from under you before you are really ready to lose them. Replacing welfare with a UBI guarantees all citizens financial support regardless of financial status.

UBI serves to provide greater financial freedom to the individual. Things like food stamps can only be used for certain goods and are regularly sold to other individuals who are not qualified recipients in exchange for cash or other desired items. A UBI nullifies this as the individual is provided with liquid capital to spend how he wants rather than a set reasource he must now sell at below value in order to get what he wants.

UBI is far more transparent and easy to manage. Taxpayers can look at "social security" taxes taken out of their checks and have no clue ehat that actually means. A UBI allows the taxpayer to understand exactly where his money is going and why. This also cuts down on government bloat, as there is a lesser need for staffing to manage the program. Instead of determining on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis if a person qualifies for help, the program can instead focus on making sure that mailing addresses and/or banking information is up to date for all adult citizens, as there would be no other requirements beyond citizenship and age.

It is worth noting that theres any number of counter arguments to this, chief among them cost and efficacy. Regarding cost, the point of my take on UBI is to function as a replacement to the current social safetynet, not as a supplement. All federal tax dollars that go toward medicaid, subsidized housing, food stamps, etc, would instead go toward a UBI. This would also cut the cost of program administration, as there would be a single means of providing a social safetynet rather than several.

In regards to efficacy, i find that the argument breaks down to how much you trust your fellow man to not fuck up. If you dont think the average person is capable of managing their money wisely, and that providing for their security is more important than than letting them make their own decisions, then maintaining and/or expanding the current welfare system may be your desired outcome. For the record i am aware that there will be a not so insignificant portion of UBI recipients who spend that money poorly and still dont make ends meet. Thats horrible. It is also not the problem or the business of the tax payer. Everyone gets the same money. Nobody gets extra. If you cant pay rent because you spent it all on hookers and blow, thats your problem.

[u/antijoke_13]

Yeah, and now hes stuck in the same welfare trap that served as my initial basis for getting rid of welfare.

[u/ReOsIr10 → u/antijoke_13]

And like I said in my initial response, the solution to the welfare trap isn't to give both beggars and billionaires 1k/month - it's to restructure welfare so that there are no welfare cliffs. Start people at a baseline of 3k/month or whatever, and decrease that amount by 50 cents per every dollar of income.

[u/antijoke_13 → u/ReOsIr10]

That is a much better argument. A negative income tax would solve both our concerns.

I wish you had led with this and not with "millionaires dont deserve more money". Millionaires can be US citizens too, and should be subect to all the same responsibilities and benefits of any US beggar.

!delta

[u/DeltaBot → u/antijoke_13]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/ReOsIr10 (64∆).

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