• Ginger666@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Explain to me like im not a communist:

    How does ubi work? Do you get it in addition to your normal income?

    • CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Depends how you think of it. What UBI is saying is that no one can make less than X money per year. The concepts differ on implementation though. For instance, the UBI could be paid out through reverse tax brackets where how much income you’re paid is diminished as you go up in income.

      A different concept is that the UBI is slowly increased for everyone every year. Then a tax is levied on companies to pay into this system and they would (probably) lower primary salaries in accordance as the UBI increased to cover it.

      The UBI would need other measures though. For instance if you’re thinking “isn’t this just welfare with extra steps?” It would be unless we seek to balance wealth inequality with the UBI. Raising the UBI too far would mean that incentives to seek specialized labor would be too low and those jobs stop being filled.

      UBI does however simplify a lot. We wouldn’t need to assess homeless or low income people for welfare really. Same with unemployment. The messy paperwork goes away once you know that you have guaranteed income.