Hmmmm....
So let me paraphrase what I just read... (admittedly my point of view may be slanted somewhat, never having received any monies from the government that I didn't either give them ahead of time, or was expected to pay back..)
"We'll tax the people that make more than a certain arbitrary minimum income (
that work hard for what they're getting), to establish a fund, or pool or money, which we will then give to the people that aren't earning enough to meet a the same arbitrary minimum income, and this will (
magically) eliminate poverty." (
Italics are me just being sarcastically dumbfounded...)
Now, lets set this arbitrary minimum at 25k (for lack of a better number to play with, that's about double the US poverty line about half the US median wage)
Let's also assume that someone (say middle-lower class income) is making 40k, working 40 hours a week (still less than the median), trying to save some for retirement, and paying work related costs (transportation, clothing, daycare, etc.) Why wouldn't they just take the 25k, and not worry about those costs, or working, or retirement (since it goes on forever, maybe called something else in their old age...)
How is that different from what we have? Except that unemployed Moe would get a little more, and maybe Larry and Curly would see the irony of working to make just a little more than what they'd give them anyway? How could that possibly positively affect society? I can see producers and retailers having to pay higher wages, since there'd need to be higher incentive to work, driving up costs of goods and services, necessitating an increase in the arbitrary minimum income, causing producers and retailers to have to pay higher wages, since there'd need to be higher incentive to work, driving up costs of goods and services, necessitating an increase in the arbitrary minimum income, causing.. well you see how it might go...
It boils back down to attitude and work ethic. You're taxing the (comparatively) rich, and giving it to the poor. Reminds me of the 60s protests that (maybe tongue in cheek) said Eat The Rich.
Ten Years After said it 45 years ago : "Tax the rich, feed the poor, till there are no rich no more" but I don't think they envisioned a world where we were all equally poor...
Jamie
(I think I should probably bow out of this conversation... It's cutting into my work time, as well as having a negative effect on my blood pressure...
)