> And they fear that a basic income would, in the end, be less than what many people get when all the federal government's cash and social-service programs are combined.
Note that the poor will obviously get fewer benefits if BI is only funded from cuts to programs the benefit the poor.
Example: lets say we eliminate program X that currently has a means test limiting it to the poorest 20% of the population. If we, as the article suggests, use that money to fond some fraction of BI for the poorest 80% of the population, then one can trivially see that we have distributed 3/4 of the money for program X away from the poorest 20%.
Now there are significant savings from reducing overhead, but unless program X is 75% overhead, it's still a net loss in realized benefits for the poor.
In order to make BI palatable to the US left, you will need to fund it at least partly through raising taxes.
Note that the poor will obviously get fewer benefits if BI is only funded from cuts to programs the benefit the poor.
Example: lets say we eliminate program X that currently has a means test limiting it to the poorest 20% of the population. If we, as the article suggests, use that money to fond some fraction of BI for the poorest 80% of the population, then one can trivially see that we have distributed 3/4 of the money for program X away from the poorest 20%.
Now there are significant savings from reducing overhead, but unless program X is 75% overhead, it's still a net loss in realized benefits for the poor.
In order to make BI palatable to the US left, you will need to fund it at least partly through raising taxes.