Greg Mankiw's Blog: A Quick Note on a Universal Basic Income: "Consider an economy in which average income is $50,000 but with much income inequality. To provide a social safety net, two possible policies are proposed.
A. A universal transfer of $10,000 to every person, financed by a 20-percent flat tax on income.
B. A means-tested transfer of $10,000. The full amount goes to someone without any income. The transfer is then phased out: You lose 20 cents of it for every dollar of income you earn. These transfers are financed by a tax of 20 percent on income above $50,000.
Which would you prefer?
I have seen smart people argue as follows: Policy A is crazy. Why should Bill Gates get a government transfer? He doesn’t need it, and we would need to raise taxes more to pay for it. Policy B is more progressive. It targets the transfer to those who really need it, and the transfer is financed by a smaller tax increase levied only on those with above-average incomes.
But here is the rub: The two policies are equivalent. If you look at the net payment (taxes less transfer), everyone is exactly the same under the two plans. The difference is only a matter of framing."
'via Blog this'
