If I have my sums right, using 2013 US Census population data for adults/children, the cost to the USA would be about $9.3 trillion. We could pay for this by taxing corporations more but the tax rate would have to be around 442% of gross profits.
In 2013 all corporate profits were about $2.1 trillion. How would we pay for this?
Even in a much smaller nation I would have concerns trying to afford the cost of this when the economic engine cannot produce the value that is to be transferred away. For all our trying no one has been able to find a better than devastating way to get more value from a society then its economy can generate. Just ask the Soviets. Cept you can't cuz their economy imploded and they're not here no more.
Then there is this.
The average US family of 4 would be given $96,000 per year just 'cuz. At the time I had such an average US family of 4, we would have lived quite comfortably on $96K ... so why work? I live comfortable. I really don't need a yacht, so what's the incentive? Being optimistic I could see where a good 40%++ of the US work force would be on self-imposed extended vacation for a couple of decades.
Whose going to flip burgers at McDuck's? OK, so you're going to raise the pay scale as an incentive. The kid is already pulling in $1500 a month, just how high would the pay scale have to be to get him to put on his apron? What would have to be the cost of an order of fries to pay for that raised pay scale?
And this scenario would play out for every good/service in the economy badly eroding the value of my Unconditional Basic Income which I didn't have to earn by being productive and efficient in the workplace strengthening and expanding the economy so my unconditional income really has nothing to underpin and stabilize its value. Since the entire purpose of the UBI is to "secure a minimum livelihood and enable a participation in society" then with this cost of living getting steeper I'm gonna need a raise. Rinse, repeat.
OK, yank the apron from the $60 an hour kid and put a robot in the drive-thru window.
Do ... you ... want ... fries ... with ... that?
One of the reasons stated for a UBI is the next round of the machine age throwing more folks out of work. In reality it makes the robot that much more imperative. A self-fulling prophesy?
No conclusions. No recommendations. Just sayin'.
Edited by AZPaul3, : title
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