Comment on [deleted]
treadful@lemmy.zip 6 months agoI think this is kind of the big problem with the messaging. I know plenty of economists say it would work, but it’s non-intuitive to most of us.
This seems like it’s the only way it would work.
Everyone gets a certain amount a month.
You get taxed a certain amount back depending how much you make above some threshold. The average wage could be good.
So now the high earners are funding the system. But if they get sick and can’t work the tax goes away but they’re still getting that base payment automatically.
Low earners get help and high earners get a safety net.
That sounds really good for the low-earners, but what incentive is there to become a high-earner in such a system?
Firstly the safety net it provides.
Then it all comes down to how much you are taxed back and the threshold. Most high earners wouldn’t notice it. And they would have had the payment until they started earning high.
You or your partner could stay at home with the children, your kids would get money, you can get sick without worrying about money, it helps everyone.
High earners already pay higher taxes.
If your argument against it is “what about selfish rich people” then I would say fuck em.
I have found that economy experts say that things are counterintuitive more often that any other field. I think at this point I have just accepted that the economy is some black magic that I’ll never understand. So I’m gonna smile, nod, and let the experts do their thing.
Ah yes, economy experts. The ones who can’t solve any single economic problem and who can’t predict a single crisis. Very useful people.
Well, you could blame that on the fact that economy experts don’t have the power to do any of those things. Politicians do.
Economics is just psychology masquerading as a hard science
Public messaging is difficult for economics because of its complex nature. Even when you simplify it, the interconnected nature of seemingly unrelated things and unforseen consequences often escape people. Then there’s the human element which sometimes produces baffling outcomes.
But all that most people think is “Why do I have to pay so much for petrol? That’s bad.”
Yeah, but it’s important to drum up political support.
Unfortunately, yes
snooggums@midwest.social 6 months ago
Do people understand that rent and other necessity prices are skyrocketing right now without income increasing? They are not intertwined in the way the myth of raising rent to match UBI is presented.
Literati@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Rents are skyrocketing because demand is high and we literally do not have enough housing for the number of people we have in the places they live.
Suddenly dumping more money into the economy would just increase the price bar on that demand, and prices would go up more.
Prices can increase for a lot of reasons, and going up from one doesn’t stop them from going up from another.