(06-29-2016, 12:00 PM)The Wonkette Wrote:(06-21-2016, 08:44 AM)Anthony Wrote: Call it Andy Stern meets Milton Friedman.Interesting thought experiment. The devil is in the details.
1. Give every U.S. citizen not in jail and over 21 a $12,500 refundable tax credit, indexed annually to the CPI.
2. Subject all income to a flat tax, say 25%, with no exemptions or credits whatsoever - no exceptions - besides #1 above.
3. Abolish the minimum wage altogether.
One side of our political divide wants to judge the poor for their laziness, while the other side wants to judge the rich for their greed.
But how about an economic policy that judges nobody?
1. Would that $12,500 be given as a lump sum every April 15 or doled out in monthly allotments?
2. No extra allotments given for parents?
3. Would this take the place of benefits such as SNAP (food stamps), free or reduced-price school meals, or subsidized housing, or would those stay?
4. If you are a noncustodial parent, would some of your $12,500 be taken out for child support payments? What about student debt?
I can think of lots of other questions. If you are a single parent with two children working at a job that pays, say $12,000 a year and you are paying 25 percent of that in taxes ($3,000), your net income is only $21,500, which is below the poverty line. With that meager income, you will need food stamps and other benefits just to get by.
$12,500 is too little. Also the flat tax will eventually results in high unemployment and widespread misery. A different version with a higher guaranteed income and a higher tax rate, say about 100K and a 70% rate for income above thatmight be made to work, but still would have lots of problems