The first post in this series
looked at the economic case for a universal basic income (UBI), by
which I mean an unconditional grant, paid to every individual, that
would be sufficient to maintain a decent minimum standard of living. In
that post, I argued that replacing the many overlapping income support
policies currently used in the United States with a UBI would be more
effective in raising the incomes of poor and near-poor households while
strengthening work incentives and improving administrative efficiency.
The
evident economic downside is that a UBI would be less narrowly targeted
on the poor than existing programs. Because it would not, by its
nature, be means tested, it would channel billions of dollars in grants
to middle- and upper-income households. Some think that would make a UBI
unaffordable without ruinous tax increases, deficits, or cuts to other
government programs. This post looks at some of the fiscal realities of a
UBI and concludes that such a program might not be fiscally unrealistic
after all. >>>Read more
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