The Debate

     I have been a supporter of a Basic Income Guarantee for practically my whole life, but I only came across the that phrase less then six months ago. Immediately I knew this was something I wanted to get behind and support and even spread the word about. However since I do not have tons of experience in political debate or in things such as giving public talks I couldn't help but imagine many scenarios in my mind where trying to get the point across about B.I.G would become difficult, even though it is a surprisingly simple approach to streamlining our current systems.

     So I eventually tried to imagine I was on stage giving a talk and what questions an opponent or an audience might ask me or what arguments they might make. Here are some of my attempts at answering questions about B.I.G. In the future I hope to get good at citing specific statistics and numbers but at this point I want to boil everything down to the roots as best as I see it.

     If you have any feed back on how I can improve my talking points or specific information that might help me or even additional questions I could try to address about B.I.G let me know and I will greatly appreciate that as this is still a learning process for me.

     Before looking at these points below it would help to know what a Basic Income Guarantee is so I highly recommend reading this link here and checking out it's resources and PDFs.

     I especially like the one titled An Efficiency Argument For The Basic Income Guarantee.

Questions or Arguments I might get asked and the Simplest Way I can think to put the Answer.

Welfare is bad for society and a drain on the system.

We already have welfare programs. 

If you'd like to debate the abolishment of welfare that's really a debate for another time.

It will create job loss.

     Actually it will create job growth. Since you can still make money even while under the threshold of living with B.I.G you could be hired for any job for any amount and still see profit. We would even be able to do away with minimum wage. 

     If you got your Income and I got mine then I payed you two dollars to do a job and you had no other income then the idea is that at least one of those dollars is yours to keep and this makes a nice bell curve where if you earned the same amount as you got from B.I.G. then you will have made at least half that much again. After that it would follow normal income tax laws. 

     In other words even if I were living on nothing but a Basic Income Guarantee and I wanted to start a carwash I could pay you 10 dollars to say hand out flyers for example and you'd have your B.I.G plus half the money I just gave you. With that system even poor people could be job creators.

     If any of that was confusing then once again I recommend this PDF especially part F which goes into the math.

     Anyone making enough to not need B.I.G would not be burdened in anyway and so corporate job makers can still make jobs. This is a net gain. Also I imagine there could come a point where wages would stay steady or even go up without as much need for minimum wage, due to all the new competition and people knowing they have a safety net to fall back on if they are offered an unreasonable wage. It's win, win for business' and individuals.

It will be a drain on the economy or be too expensive to pay for.

By combining the cost of many of the programs out there that help those in poverty and combining all the paper work and maintenance costs of all those buildings and bureaucracies into a simple monthly check that goes to everyone this reformation of assistance programs can very easily pay for its self. 

No one will want to work.

This is just simply false. In every single aspect of life you will find people who do work without making any money and not just hobbyists many professionals do what they love because they want to not because they are forced to and many projects that make no profit at all turn out to be some of the best at what they have to offer. Besides all that is the simple fact that by working you can make profit above and beyond the Basic Income Guarantee.

Ask yourself this, If your working at a job that makes above the poverty line in earnings say maybe 30k a year and I told you I will pay you 10k to quit your job right now would you really take it. Would you drop your families income that much and throw out your salary or contract or expertise and choose to stay home and do nothing but watch TV? 

Keep in mind that although B.I.G. if set high enough will make an amazing social safety net but the average income will always be higher then the basic amount everyone gets, and since the first portion of what everyone makes will go toward paying back the monthly guaranteed check but in a bell curve that will always show an increase in profit, it will be beneficial to both you and the system for you to continue working. Only now you can continue working knowing full well that if you needed to cut your hours or find a new job or go back to school you won't have to worry about being flat broke or fighting to get assistance.

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     Like I said before part of the point of this post is for me to simply the conversation in my mind so I am going to go back through these same points but with a simple answer.

Welfare is bad for society and a drain on the system.

I'm not here to argue which is better capitalism or socialism. We already live in a mix of both.

It will create job loss.

It will create job growth. Anyone paying anyone an income will be beneficial to all parties involved.

It will be a drain on the economy or be too expensive to pay for.

Through combining benefits and streamlining the current systems and a simple bell curve it will pay for it's self.

No one will want to work.

Everyone will still want to work for all the same reasons they currently do.



If you would like to help support me or the B.I.G. cause, consider contributing to me or one of the other B.I.G. supporters over on Patreon