Will robotics and Artificial Intelligence make an Unconditional but Taxable Basic Minimum Income Supplement necessary?

[Independent thinker]

I agree with you and I do believe that Economist Milton Friedman told us how to accomplish that. My idea is that this could be began up here in Canada with a paltry five hundred "northern pesos" monthly. If my calculations are correct this should set in motion the paying down of the Canadian federal deficit at the rate of twenty billion dollars per month, [ after the Canadian economy gets used to this new income supplement]?

Dr. Milton Friedman's idea was that BUREAUCRACY could be kept to a minimum by making an Unconditional but Taxable Basic Minimum Income Supplement of the same number to all citizens [as well as to probably all legal residents]. Dr. Friedman wanted this to be separate from income tax and completely different from the existing Welfare Bureaucracy.

Here is my guess at what Dr. Friedman's idea could lead to:

Interesting idea to axe social service programs and just do some form of basic income in replace of them. If it actually decreases the national debt then I might be able to be talked into this idea.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Interesting idea to axe social service programs and just do some form of basic income in replace of them. If it actually decreases the national debt then I might be able to be talked into this idea.

That's not what BMI does. Everyone gets the same amount. Everyone!

 

[Independent thinker]

That's not what BMI does. Everyone gets the same amount. Everyone!

Yes, that is the basic idea. But, it doesn't have to be that way.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Yes, that is the basic idea. But, it doesn't have to be that way.

Then don't call it that. Call it what it is! Welfare for those in need.

 

[kyzr]

Exactly! But a pretty impressive case can be presented that the national debt of the USA is significantly a practical joke being played on three hundred and fifty million Americans by elected officials who tend to be susceptible to the offers that they get as soon as they choose a home in Washington, D. C?
At least that is how I personally understand what was being attempted by President John F. Kennedy as he tried to replicate the President Lincoln Greenback Monetary Policy Experiment, [ well, some important aspects of Lincoln's Greenback Monetary Experiment anyway]!?
Whether the USA national debt is ten percent a joke....or thirty percent a joke.....has implications into the trillions of dollars.....
so I shall get a discussion and poll going on that topic shortly.

Years back the Joint Chiefs said that the national debt was the #1 threat to the US.
Now, no one discusses it.
We pay $1.1T annually for interest on the debt, and congress and the Federal Reserve pretend its not there.
Trump's $400b tariff revenue is the best shot we have of starting to pay it down if we can cut spending.

 

[Independent thinker]

Then don't call it that. Call it what it is! Welfare for those in need.

What I said was that I thought the idea was interesting to replace social services with basic income and to not have both. I would have to dissect the nuts and bolts of a real proposal but if it actually decreased the national debt then it is an interesting idea to consider.

 

[TimFitz]

It will probably create more jobs for people.

That will happen.

 

[TimFitz]

Years back the Joint Chiefs said that the national debt was the #1 threat to the US.
Now, no one discusses it.
We pay $1.1T annually for interest on the debt, and congress and the Federal Reserve pretend its not there.
Trump's $400b tariff revenue is the best shot we have of starting to pay it down if we can cut spending.

Of course not.

Trump is president, and he is a borrow and spend guy, just like George W Bush and Ronald Reagan were.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Years back the Joint Chiefs said that the national debt was the #1 threat to the US.
Now, no one discusses it.
We pay $1.1T annually for interest on the debt, and congress and the Federal Reserve pretend its not there.
Trump's $400b tariff revenue is the best shot we have of starting to pay it down if we can cut spending.

$400 billion is a drop in the bucket compared to $37 trillion in national debt. It would take 93 years to pay off the debt at that rate, and several years to just pay of one year's deficit. Apparently, you are like most people and suck at math.

Take $37 trillion and divide it by $400 billion and see how long it takes?

 

[DennisPTate]

$400 billion is a drop in the bucket compared to $37 trillion in national debt. It would take 93 years to pay off the debt at that rate, and several years to just pay of one year's deficit. Apparently, you are like most people and suck at math.

Take $37 trillion and divide it by $400 billion and see how long it takes?

I could be wrong....
I often am but I believe that President Donald J. Trump may have set up the Premier of the Canadian province of Alberta
in such a way that her voice will be louder than that of the Prime Minister of Canada?

Do a search for an image that is fairly easy to see online entitled "Republic of Western Canada."

I will try to find it for you but that image has gotten President Trump and some very intelligent people in the NSA and CIA thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking..... [and some of them were even praying]?!

On an interesting side note there was a rather controversial Premier of Alberta who may have been "Charlie Kirked," specifically perhaps with poison?

William Aberhart - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

William Aberhart (December 30, 1878 – May 23, 1943), also known as "Bible Bill" for his radio sermons about the Bible, was a Canadian politician and the seventh premier of Alberta from 1935 to his death in 1943.<a href="William Aberhart - Wikipedia"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a> He was the founder and first leader of the Alberta Social Credit Party, which believed the Great Depression was caused by ordinary people not having enough to spend. Therefore, Aberhart argued that the government should give each Albertan $25 per month ($565.97 in 2025) to spend to stimulate the economy, by providing needed purchasing power to allow needy customers to buy from waiting businesses.

And now that I have your attention please notice:

www.CalgaryDollars.ca/


Please imagine the Reverse Engineering of a Product similar to the concept of the film:
"Banking on Bitcoin."

 

[kyzr]

Of course not.

Trump is president, and he is a borrow and spend guy, just like George W Bush and Ronald Reagan were.

Trump-45 was, but he had the shutdown to deal with.
Trump-47 is a fiscal conservative, he cut $1.5T off Biden's last budget, now dems are whining about the ACA

 

[TimFitz]

Trump-45 was, but he had the shutdown to deal with.
Trump-47 is a fiscal conservative, he cut $1.5T off Biden's last budget, now dems are whining about the ACA

Trump 47 is a borrow and spend guy.

Forget his empty rhetoric.

His bill assed trillions to the national debt.

 

[kyzr]

$400 billion is a drop in the bucket compared to $37 trillion in national debt. It would take 93 years to pay off the debt at that rate, and several years to just pay of one year's deficit. Apparently, you are like most people and suck at math.
Take $37 trillion and divide it by $400 billion and see how long it takes?

Trump's 2026 budget has a $240b deficit as scored by the CBO, or $2.4T over 10-years.

To avoid borrowing more and adding to the debt until the USD collapses, I support the following:
Tariff revenue of $400b eliminates the deficit, I'm a retired engineer, I'm much better at math than you are.
DOGE savings of $214b can be realized if congress acts
The CBO assumed 1.8% GDP growth can generate $300b in additional tax revenue if GDP is over 3%
For every 1% cut in interest rates by the Fed $300b in interest ion the debt service is realized.

$400b + $214b + $300b + $300b -$240b = $974b can be lopped off the national debt not just $400b

But the fly in the ointment is that SS and Medicare are going insolvent, plus healthcare is a mess, so we need a 40% top rate and to eliminate the capital gains tax loophole. Eliminating the cap for SS fixes that.

How about we claw-back the democrat's slush funds?

Exclusive | $375B EPA slush fund handled by John Podesta gave billions to charities founded only months earlier

The EPA gave out $20 billion to environmental justice and green credit groups that had barely registered with the IRS.

nypost.com

ICYMI: Administrator Lee Zeldin Announces EPA Found Billions of Dollars Parked at an Outside Financial Institution by Biden Administration | US EPA

EPA News Release: ICYMI: Administrator Lee Zeldin Announces EPA Found Billions of Dollars Parked at an Outside Financial Institution by Biden Administration

www.epa.gov

Biden sent $2 billion to Stacey Abrams-linked group in green energy 'scheme,' EPA says

The Environmental Protection Agency found that the Biden administration gave $2 billion to a climate group linked to Stacey Abrams.

www.foxnews.com

The $42 billion internet program that has connected 0 people

The federal BEAD program makes little sense with the rate of private markets providing internet access.

www.washingtonpolicy.org

So that's about $440b of DNC slush funds that can be clawed back and put on the debt.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Trump's 2026 budget has a $240b deficit as scored by the CBO, or $2.4T over 10-years.

To avoid borrowing more and adding to the debt until the USD collapses, I support the following:
Tariff revenue of $400b eliminates the deficit, I'm a retired engineer, I'm much better at math than you are.
DOGE savings of $214b can be realized if congress acts
The CBO assumed 1.8% GDP growth can generate $300b in additional tax revenue if GDP is over 3%
For every 1% cut in interest rates by the Fed $300b in interest ion the debt service is realized.

$400b + $214b + $300b + $300b -$240b = $974b can be lopped off the national debt not just $400b

But the fly in the ointment is that SS and Medicare are going insolvent, plus healthcare is a mess, so we need a 40% top rate and to eliminate the capital gains tax loophole. Eliminating the cap for SS fixes that.

How about we claw-back the democrat's slush funds?

Exclusive | $375B EPA slush fund handled by John Podesta gave billions to charities founded only months earlier

The EPA gave out $20 billion to environmental justice and green credit groups that had barely registered with the IRS.

nypost.com

ICYMI: Administrator Lee Zeldin Announces EPA Found Billions of Dollars Parked at an Outside Financial Institution by Biden Administration | US EPA

EPA News Release: ICYMI: Administrator Lee Zeldin Announces EPA Found Billions of Dollars Parked at an Outside Financial Institution by Biden Administration

www.epa.gov

Biden sent $2 billion to Stacey Abrams-linked group in green energy 'scheme,' EPA says

The Environmental Protection Agency found that the Biden administration gave $2 billion to a climate group linked to Stacey Abrams.

www.foxnews.com

The $42 billion internet program that has connected 0 people

The federal BEAD program makes little sense with the rate of private markets providing internet access.

www.washingtonpolicy.org

So that's about $440b of DNC slush funds that can be clawed back and put on the debt.

What budget? The one that hasn't been passed yet by Congress?

 

[g5000]

Will robotics and Artificial Intelligence make an Unconditional but Taxable Basic Minimum Income Supplement necessary?​

I have wondered this same thing for some time now.

But taxing BMI makes no sense.

.

I believe that Economist Milton Friedman set the intellectual stage for what must happen next.

Yes, Milton Friedman, of the Chicago school of economics, was an advocate for what he called the negative income tax.

His plan was that the negative income tax would replace all existing welfare programs, and would therefore be easier to administer.

.
Experiments with UBI have proven to be very successful. Recipients of UBI become more productive, just like recipients of the EITC, the only tax expenditure I believe we should have, with all others banned.


Do you know who else was an advocate for a Universal Basic Income?

Founding Father Thomas Paine.

He also advocated for a social security system.

The man was WAY ahead of his time.

.

 

[g5000]

Tariff revenue of $400b eliminates the deficit, I'm a retired engineer, I'm much better at math than you are.

.

Well, since this tax increase on American importers has only brought in about $200 billion, I'd say your math thoroughly sucks!

Here's an idea. Since 97 percent of American importers are small businesses, how about we leave them the **** alone and eliminate the tax cuts for the wealthy instead?


.

 

[g5000]

Trump's 2026 budget has a $240b deficit as scored by the CBO

Actually, the CBO has scored Trump's 2026 budget with a $1.7 trillion deficit for the fiscal year 2026.

Not for ten years.

For ONE year.

https://bipartisanpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Budget-Deficit.jpg

Even as the U.S. economy expands, the federal government continues to run large and growing budget deficits that will soon exceed $1 trillion per year.

bipartisanpolicy.org

 

[Missouri_Mike]

It is possible for this to be done in such a way that will set off an economic boom unlike has been seen in centuries but...... it is critical that voters do not remain as ignorant of the larger picture as we so often tend to be.

The one guaranteed way to make sure it’s a disaster is having more government involved.

 

[g5000]

The one guaranteed way to make sure it’s a disaster is having more government involved.

With Milton Friedman's negative income tax, the federal government would be less involved.

His negative income tax would eliminate all other forms of welfare. No more need for the massive personnel and costly administration of those programs. Gone.

 

[g5000]

Before the Industrial Revolution, most people worked 12 or more hours a day, six to seven days a week.

The Industrial Revolution gradually brought about the 40 hour, five day, work week.

Worker productivity has skyrocketed over the century since then, requiring less workers to produce the same output.

We are actually producing more food and more manufactured goods than ever, just with less workers.

I am surprised we are not already working a 30 hour, four day, work week.

I don't see why AI won't be able to reduce us to 20 hour work weeks eventually.

The economic sector which will have the largest employment will be the entertainment and services sector.

I think we might already be there.
.