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MrEff@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Hot take here and I would love discussion- but this is a small reason why I am against a full UBI in cash, but want UBI in voucher form with only a small portion in cash. Vouchers limit potential inflation spill over from sectors and you can now control how much people are getting depending on factors to better and more fairly suit their situations. This is also why I am a huge fan of “food stamps” or food welfare programs. This is essentialy what they are doing already, just make it universal. Then we look at things like housing vouchers, another great program that we can now just scale up and make universal as well. Then you only need to give a smaller cash handout for incidental spending. You know people are going to have to spend money on housing and food, so make those the priorities for funding vouchers and you can put rules in place to minimize inflation within those industries. Then if you have people who are well of enough to not need the full voucher, let them convert the voucher over to cash at a penalty rate, say 2 to 1 for cash, or some progressive scale for remaining money. They don’t need the money as much, but you also don’t want them to be completely left out unfairly and have them resentful of the system. This could even expand into other industries or normal costs. Transportation, cable/internet, cell service, even some insurance (like car, rental, umbrella- assuming that if you are at a level of providing UBI, you are already providing universal health care). Now for each voucher you can make it needs and situation based and evaluate a fair amount for each person through an automated system depending on some quick metrics of their life. Each voucher system is also industry specific with its own oversight and regulations and inflation reductions built into it. I think it would be a better system and am open to others thoughts.
fireweed@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Holy crap that’s complex. And for what? We know that the more complicated a system is the more prone it is to loopholes and abuse. If you’re a single parent working three jobs, or a foster kid who just aged out of the system and are newly on your own, or mentally disabled, or undereducated, or simply trying to keep your shit together while trying to deal with something like addiction or mental illness or recent homelessness or what have you, you’re undoubtedly going to be leaving a shitload of money on the table by not having the time/energy/wherewithal to fully take advantage of this convoluted system, even though you’re part of the exact population that needs the most assistance. UBI experiments (and similar examples from the charity world) have been pretty clear: just give people the fucking cash, no strings, no fine print, no hoops, and that will have the best result for the recipients, and the least overhead for the givers.
MrEff@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Thanks for the reply, I was hoping to generate more discussion. It looks like you were the only one…