{"items": [{"author": "Todd", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/793921393042?comment_id=793940245262", "anchor": "fb-793940245262", "service": "fb", "text": "\"50% is more reasonable than 38%\"
That seems like it merits some explanation or justification.", "timestamp": "1466113832"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/793921393042?comment_id=793940245262&reply_comment_id=793943738262", "anchor": "fb-793940245262_793943738262", "service": "fb", "text": "→ \"reasonable\" in that I think it's more likely to be high enough to generate enough money to fund it all.", "timestamp": "1466114624"}, {"author": "Jim", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/793921393042?comment_id=793947311102", "anchor": "fb-793947311102", "service": "fb", "text": "I know someone (who you have probably met) who got badly hurt by this, in Massachusetts. Their sole source of income was SSI, which is ~$800/mo. As they understood it, any financial assistance from family (which was available) would've been required to be reported, and deducted at a 100% marginal rate. However, $800/mo is well below subsistence for the area; they saved on rent by living in a mold-infested apartment. This led to a bunch of health problems and (I would guess, without having seen the paperwork) something on the order of ~$100k of avoidable medical expenses billed to the state.", "timestamp": "1466116185"}, {"author": "Tomer", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/793921393042?comment_id=793947311102&reply_comment_id=794079092012", "anchor": "fb-793947311102_794079092012", "service": "fb", "text": "→ Seems like mold infested apartments should be regulated out of existence. If your friend didn't live there, somebody else would.", "timestamp": "1466175753"}, {"author": "Alexander", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/793921393042?comment_id=793947311102&reply_comment_id=795556376522", "anchor": "fb-793947311102_795556376522", "service": "fb", "text": "→ Tomer: The health effects of homelessness would presumably be even worse.", "timestamp": "1466635325"}, {"author": "Kate", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/793921393042?comment_id=793947311102&reply_comment_id=795581461252", "anchor": "fb-793947311102_795581461252", "service": "fb", "text": "→ Alexander can confirm, are a disaster. Especially underrated are dental and chronic pain issues", "timestamp": "1466645810"}, {"author": "Carl", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/793921393042?comment_id=793958284112", "anchor": "fb-793958284112", "service": "fb", "text": "\"This is one of the reasons I'm in favor of testing out a universal basic income (UBI) system: give everyone, rich or poor, a basic income and then tax people smoothly as they earn money. Because there's only one kind of assistance to phase out and everyone gets it, it's much easier to make sure you're keeping disincentives to work low at every income level.\"
But the total work disincentive to be allocated goes way up, because you need to raise far more tax money to pay for the UBI.
You also need to further raise taxes to compensate for people who use the UBI to reduce work hours:
\"Our preferred estimates suggest that every dollar won in a lottery reduces lifetime after-tax labour earnings of winners by $0.10-$0.20.\"
http://voxeu.org/.../labour-supply-responses-lottery-winners", "timestamp": "1466118794"}, {"author": "Carl", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/793921393042?comment_id=793958284112&reply_comment_id=793958393892", "anchor": "fb-793958284112_793958393892", "service": "fb", "text": "→ In contrast if you give people wage subsidies like the EITC the program can give you increased labor supply.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earned_income_tax_credit...", "timestamp": "1466118885"}, {"author": "Alyssa", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/793921393042?comment_id=793958284112&reply_comment_id=793959057562", "anchor": "fb-793958284112_793959057562", "service": "fb", "text": "→ Wage subsidies don't resolve the question, though, of what happens to people who can't hold a job. Do they just starve?", "timestamp": "1466119362"}, {"author": "Carl", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/793921393042?comment_id=793958284112&reply_comment_id=793960804062", "anchor": "fb-793958284112_793960804062", "service": "fb", "text": "→ Alyssa Are people starving to death in the US under the current system?
I'd say condition-based disability insurance where you get money for a particular health state. If you decriminalize poverty you can prevent starvation and homelessness with a far smaller and less costly grant.
And probably legislation to harmonize benefit phase-outs would be more achievable and efficient than more than doubling costs with a UBI.
http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=31723", "timestamp": "1466120259"}, {"author": "Jim", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/793921393042?comment_id=793958284112&reply_comment_id=793964855942", "anchor": "fb-793958284112_793964855942", "service": "fb", "text": "→ Carl: That's a very complicated question, but \"starving to death\" is not the right model. The real question is how much total health damage US people sustain as a result of food insecurity and hunger. The US food insecurity rate is about 14% of households (http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/1896841/err194.pdf). (This sample excludes homeless people. The definition of \"food insecure\" is specific and slightly technical.) This is a difficult question to study; getting a tight bound would require determining which portion of the difference in health outcomes between high and low socioeconomic status is due to differences in diet quality and quantity (as opposed to education, genetics, etc), and how much those differences are driven by money as opposed to cultural or other factors.", "timestamp": "1466122459"}, {"author": "Jim", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/793921393042?comment_id=793958284112&reply_comment_id=793966043562", "anchor": "fb-793958284112_793966043562", "service": "fb", "text": "→ Regardless of how many people are actually starving, everyone who walks through a city's downtown sees people on display who certainly look as though they are. Historical experience suggests an incentive on the part of governments to pretend they're not there, and distort evidence to hide the problem.", "timestamp": "1466122910"}, {"author": "Scott", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/793921393042?comment_id=794026756892", "anchor": "fb-794026756892", "service": "fb", "text": "It seems like you could set up a program that comes in at the end, once all the benefits have been applied, and just tops up whatever's missing.", "timestamp": "1466160699"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/793921393042?comment_id=794026756892&reply_comment_id=794073443332", "anchor": "fb-794026756892_794073443332", "service": "fb", "text": "→ Then why apply for any in kind benefits at all? And why even keep them?", "timestamp": "1466172513"}, {"author": "Scott", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/793921393042?comment_id=794026756892&reply_comment_id=794098493132", "anchor": "fb-794026756892_794098493132", "service": "fb", "text": "→ Precisely? This is how you actually get universal basic income implemented. Not that lobbying stuff.", "timestamp": "1466182888"}, {"author": "Daniel", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/104241554778763268733", "anchor": "gp-1467189344667", "service": "gp", "text": "I used to agree with this and find UBI to be obvious, but then somebody pointed out to me a potential market response. If everybody makes a certain amount, then sellers of necessities (like food) can raise prices, forcing a UBI to increase to match, leading to such things increasing far faster than inflation. Like financial aid for college: if the government wants to make sure enough aid is available that it\u2019s relatively easy to send kids to college, colleges can raise prices; in fact tuition has been vastly outstripping inflation in recent years (although I am not sure if this is actually caused by financial aid; that sounds difficult to test).\n
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\nIn other words, a UBI only works if food, water, and shelter prices don\u2019t rise to match, which they would.\n
\n
\nIf the guaranteed income is not a basic income this problem partially goes away, at the cost of not actually solving poverty-related problems.", "timestamp": 1467189344}]}