Two I would implement are not on their list of options.
Posted on: December 6, 2017 at 10:54:15 CT
JeffB
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1. I would get rid of all of the safety net government programs for able bodied citizens and replace them with a negative income tax. Something like 70% of the money spent on those programs is wasted on government bureaucracy and only 30% or so actually goes to those that it is intended for.
Under my plan no one would starve or freeze to death, nor go without at least the most basic stripped down health care needed for survival. But it might entail mostly a rice and beans or similarly inexpensive diet, and housing in a barracks with drug testing, and help in treatment of alcoholism, drug addiction etc., and care for the mentally ill.
2. I would get rid of the minimum wage. If people can work but cannot find employment, it should not be illegal for a person or business to hire them at a wage both agree to. If people earn wages below the subsistence level the negative income tax would kick in & rather than getting a tax bill, they would get a check for "the negative income tax". There would be a gradation in standard of living based upon what they earn rather than the wasteful, often unfair, hodgepodge of confusing and overlapping government programs that are absurdly wasteful in administering.
Those earning nothing live at the bare subsistence level. Those earning at least a little, even $1 per hour, have a little money to improve their standard of living somewhat. It gives those at the bottom end of the economic spectrum the incentive and the ability to find at least some employment, giving them the dignity of having a job, rather than living on the government dole with little chance of getting on that first rung of the ladder to success. As they gain skills and acclimatize to a work ethic, hopefully they can continue to climb that ladder to success, attaining a higher standard of living as they go.
It would eliminate most disincentives to work experienced under the current idiotic system, reduce the governmental administration overhead and would improve fairness.