Hi all! Just joined this group, and I was wondering if negative income tax (basic income) as proposed by Friedman (and Hayek and many other great economists) has been discussed here yet? As somewhat recent studies have shown that income inequality is actually bad for economic growth, it seems to me that negative income tax should have a fresh look from the liberal side. The alternative being more government run social projects which are very ineffective compared to negative income tax and dont give nearly the same amount of freedom. The biggest argument against basic income is the idea that it would lead to people working a lot less, yet this has been shown to be incorrect in studies done so far. Below Ill link to studies about income inequality and economic growth and studies about negative income tax / basic income. theguardian/business/2014/feb/26/imf-inequality-economic-growth washingtonsblog/2014/02/short-years-mainstream-economics-gone-assuming-runaway-inequality-harmless-understanding-cripples-economy.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States (its a similar story across Europe, lagging slightly behind the US) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_income_tax en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income basicincome.org/bien/index.html usbig.net/index.php libertarianism.org/columns/why-did-hayek-support-basic-income libertarianism.org/columns/libertarian-case-basic-income nytimes/2013/11/17/magazine/switzerlands-proposal-to-pay-people-for-being-alive.html Etc. Google for much more and pilot studies that have been done so far including Canada and the US (which have very promising results). The picture that emerges from all of this is that the optimal capitalist system, one with income redistribution through negative income tax, gives true freedom and financial security to all classes and at the same time helping companies who no longer have to pay a mimimal wage etc) and giving the overall economy a higher growth. Close to an utopia Id say. And a future proof one. While the current implementation of capitalism and liberal ideas is sub-optimal and is unnecessarily hurting the lower classes while taking away liberties of both people and companies, giving a bigger government and hurting economic growth. And with increased automation taking away ever more jobs across more and more professions, its flaws become ever more pressing.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 01:20:44 +0000
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