2013/10/20 Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> > some good insight as usual 8)
note that the key to unconditional income, is that IT IS NOT A MINIMUM INCOME... in france we have a minimum income, which is canceled when you earn your life... it is demotivating, even for courageous people who compute that working make them lose money... some love working, but they have family and they SEE that working ans earning their life they will loose most of charity money that french welfare state propose... in the caraib department of France, that minimum income is often more than working for sugar cane or banana plantation, so people prefer not to work... if it was unconditional, they will prefer to work to have both money, and improve their lifestyle giving no advantage in not working is THE KEY of the basic fixed UNCONDITIONAL income, compared to CHARITY style of welfare. the only negative effect I see is that you have to increase taxes a little to pay that income... but compared to a good welfare state, and all the lost energy wasted to explain you suffering, justify your expenses, optimize you tax rate, maybe it is beneficial... flat tax, plus fixed basic income. you can add to that some forced competition, with state companies under market competition (when there is natural monopolies to fight), or antitrust laws....
