Original in Spanish: Aritmética de la renta básica
In fact, you can also read it another way: a universal income of 600 eur is equivalent to saying that if you pay less than 600 eur of income tax you get a 600 eur benefit, but if you pay more than 600 eur of income tax it means a 600 eur tax cut.
What’s really decisive there is the figure you set. Do we want it to be 600? 200? 1000? That’s where “it depends on the implementation” comes in. Maybe it’s good to start at 50, maybe you have to go straight to the target basic income because starting lower never gets there, maybe you should start with children only, maybe not… there are tons of variables that make the scenario completely different.
In the end it must be enough for anyone to live with dignity, maybe by way of moving to a village cheaper than the city. It should cover at least food and housing. In exchange, you remove the benefits that currently have to be applied for individually for those purposes. You’re left with a welfare state that only has to manage the special benefits (disabilities, study grants…).
Also, bonus ball: this system would give the most exploited workers an important lever to refuse rubbish jobs, so that the small jobs get paid the wage they deserve. I can’t imagine a better measure for workers’ rights; not even the minimum wage is that good for that. Maybe that’s the solution to prostitution out of necessity… I don’t know.
It can be done very badly, but if it were done well and it worked, it would be marvelous.
(Facebook, 2019-04-06)