GameStonk posted... UBI is absolutely socialism if you have a graduated tax system. You're using money from the middle/upper classes and redistributing it to everyone, including those who did not pay into the program.
If you use a graduated tax system to fund your alleged UBI, its not UBI.
Hbthebattle posted... no it isnt.
Socialism involves redistribution of money from wealthy people to lower income people if they fulfill certain qualifications. UBI involves giving every legal adult the same amount of money, regardless of how rich or poor they are, just for existing basically. Its intended to be a response to automation taking care of a lot of the work that theyd need to pay a human to do.
Using Yangs UBI as an example, he intended to pay every legal person in the US who is 18 or older $1000/month. It would have been funded from 4 sources:
- VAT on all non-exempt businesses (and before someone says that this expense would be passed onto the consumer...the consumer would need to be spending $120k per year on non-exempt luxury items to lose out the benefit of the $1k/month). Grocery stores and other sellers of non-luxury goods are exempt from VAT.
- A consolidation of other governmental handouts (and the handouts that you earned like SSI or veterans benefits would not have been taken from you).
- Pollution tax.
- New monies created from a newly stimulated economy.