The negative income tax is an interesting idea, but I argue that ultimately that tax structure is unnecessary since people will *always* want to consume more, so the incentive to be productive in whatever endeavor is most profitable for the individual will always exist. The difference is, with a basic income, individuals will actually be free to find their most productive endeavor, since the threat of grinding poverty is gone. That's sort of the case in Norway, where they have a markedly higher number of individuals starting businesses than other industrialized nations.
I also am not convinced that income or corporate taxes would have to be increased. As controversial as the idea is, levying steep taxes on the wealth of the dead actually makes a lot of sense. It's the least intrusive and disruptive to the working economy at large, far less than income or sales taxes.
And despite what critics contend, I doubt that older wealth holders will simply burn through their cash because they don't know when they will die, so there is always incentive for them to keep wealth.
But even more fundamentally, I think the result is a purer form of capitalism, because in a capitalistic economy wealth should flow along vectors of productivity, not lineage.
Slashdot Mirror
The negative income tax is an interesting idea, but I argue that ultimately that tax structure is unnecessary since people will *always* want to consume more, so the incentive to be productive in whatever endeavor is most profitable for the individual will always exist. The difference is, with a basic income, individuals will actually be free to find their most productive endeavor, since the threat of grinding poverty is gone. That's sort of the case in Norway, where they have a markedly higher number of individuals starting businesses than other industrialized nations. I also am not convinced that income or corporate taxes would have to be increased. As controversial as the idea is, levying steep taxes on the wealth of the dead actually makes a lot of sense. It's the least intrusive and disruptive to the working economy at large, far less than income or sales taxes. And despite what critics contend, I doubt that older wealth holders will simply burn through their cash because they don't know when they will die, so there is always incentive for them to keep wealth. But even more fundamentally, I think the result is a purer form of capitalism, because in a capitalistic economy wealth should flow along vectors of productivity, not lineage.