Whoa, eliminating poverty entirely...that's a leap almost equivalent to a hyperspace jump. I've seen actual economists, proponents of UBI, making much more modest assumptions.
At the very least rents and house prices in poor neighborhoods will go up, negating the benefit of UBI.
> In the US, Social Security + Medicare + Medicaid adds up to US$1.97B per year, almost 11% of the US GDP
Yes, and you want to dismantle them and share that sum among everyone in the form of basic income. That would mean you'd be taking money from people who actually need it, to give to people who need it less. To counter that, you'd have to increase everyone's taxes just so the former welfare recipients aren't worse off. Of course, the taxes won't be raised just enough to offset the newly gained income, it will have to be raised more, probably substantially more because there will be people who haven't qualified for welfare before but will receive the UBI.
My post has no racist tone, you're seeing something that isn't there.
Kragen is right. "Big White Friendly Brother" was obviously race-baiting, and the first sentence of your comment was both acerbic and gratuitous—exactly what we don't want here.
We ban accounts that post flamebait, whether racial or otherwise, so please don't do this again. If you'd instead read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and really take the spirit of this site to heart, we'd appreciate it. As you'll see, it means a lot more than editing flamebait out, though that's definitely required.
OK, I can understand how it can be taken the wrong way but for the record it was a nod to the "white savior complex", rather than an attempt to insult Kenyans.
> In the US, Social Security + Medicare + Medicaid adds up to US$1.97B per year, almost 11% of the US GDP
Yes, and you want to dismantle them and share that sum among everyone in the form of basic income. That would mean you'd be taking money from people who actually need it, to give to people who need it less. To counter that, you'd have to increase everyone's taxes just so the former welfare recipients aren't worse off. Of course, the taxes won't be raised just enough to offset the newly gained income, it will have to be raised more, probably substantially more because there will be people who haven't qualified for welfare before but will receive the UBI.
My post has no racist tone, you're seeing something that isn't there.