Current Events > 2020 presidential candidate wants to give everyone $1,000 a month.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Yang points to a 2012 estimate published by Bloomberg that a 10 percent VAT would raise $750 billion. And a 2010 estimate by Eric Toder and Joseph Rosenberg of the Washington, DC-based Tax Policy Center, predicted the United States could have raised $356 billion in 2012 through a 5 percent VAT. At the time, that $356 billion in VAT was equal to 2.3 percent of GDP. Yang doubled the VAT in this estimate for a 10 percent tax, which equals $712 billion.

Eric Toder tells CNBC Make It a 10 percent VAT in the United States could raise anywhere from $500 billion to $1 trillion, depending on how broadly the tax is applied.

"I made a rough calculation that a 10 percent VAT with the same coverage as the average in other countries would raise about $500 billion per year," says Toder. A typical VAT is levied on 50 percent of total spending on consumption in a country, according to Toder (who references "The VAT Reader: What a Federal Consumption Tax Would Mean for America" published in 2011).

Under Yang's plan, current welfare and social program beneficiaries in the United States would be able to keep their existing benefits if they prefer.

As for getting a VAT passed, Yang says, "If I become president then there will likely will have been a blue wave, and so we would have a majority Democratic Congress." But he also sees evidence that Republicans can support a cash handout to the North: "The only state right now with a universal basic income equivalent is Alaska and that's a deep red state."

Indeed, Alaska has a state-wide version of UBI, and has since 1982, when the state distributed the Alaska Permanent Fund check. The goal was to share the oil riches with future generations. Today, Alaskan residents still get cash handouts from the fund, called the Permanent Fund Dividend. When Zuckerberg visited Alaska in the summer of 2017 as part of his "Year of Travel challenge," the Facebook executive observed the state's cash handout program "provides some good lessons for the rest of the country."

And Yang is not alone in talking about universal basic income.

In March, UBI was adopted as part of the 2018 official party platform of the California Democratic Party at the 2018 California Democrats State Convention, which was published February 25. Silicon Valley start-up accelerator Y Combinator has already conducted a one-year "feasibility study" in Oakland, California, to prepare for a larger study of universal basic income. And in October, Stockton, California's 27-year-old mayor, Michael Tubbs, announced a universal basic income project for his city, which declared bankruptcy in 2013.

As a relative unkown with just $250,000 raised (including $1,000 from Tony Hsieh of Zappos) and no political experience, Yang is fighting an uphill battle. A candidate must go through a process of state primaries and caucuses collecting delegate votes leading up to the party's national convention just to be the nominee. And each state has its own uniquely complex rules and processes for getting on the primary ballot.

But fundamentally, says Yang, he's running for President because he sees a problem that needs to be solved. "I'm an entrepreneur ... so you want to try and solve problems. The problem I saw was that we're going to automate away millions of jobs ... so then the question is how can you realistically solve for that?" Yang tells CNBC Make It. "There's a very limited range of things you can do if you're genuinely trying to solve that problem, and so that's how I arrived at running for president."

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Darkman124 posted...

although i've never been fond of VAT.

VAT is actually functionally identical to a sales tax, with the only notable difference being that it's added in during a different step, incidentally meaning the shelf price is actually the price you pay at the checkout instead of being a surprise.

Prior to running for President, Yang launched Venture for America in July 2011, a New York City-headquartered organization that trains entrepreneurs in a two-year fellowship program. In recognition of his work with Venture for America, Yang was named a Champion of Change in 2012 and a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship in 2015 by the Obama White House. Yang was previously the CEO of the test-prep education company Manhattan GMAT, which industry leader Kaplan bought in 2009. (Kaplan declined to disclose to CNBC Make It the price at which it acquired the company.)

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Questionmarktarius posted...

Darkman124 posted...

although i've never been fond of VAT.

VAT is actually functionally identical to a sales tax, with the only notable difference being that it's added in during a different step, incidentally meaning the shelf price is actually the price you pay at the checkout instead of being a surprise.

yes, i know. i dislike sales taxes as they are typically regressive. i thought i called it a national sales tax in my post? maybe i didn't, my eyes are still literally bleeding from last night.

e:
Darkman124 posted...

he proposed a 10% value-added tax (national sales tax)

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as a note, i'd be interested in seeing an analysis of exactly how much of a given payout would be getting fed right back in to the VAT, assuming most people keep working
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JordanPeterson posted...

$1,000 per month after the Democrats tax you $3,000 per month

So you're saying everyone would pay in $3000 and then get back $1000? How does that math work out?
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Garioshi posted...

SimpleMan posted...

How would it be paid for?

Hike the top marginal tax rate up to 90% like in the Eisenhower years. Link the corporate tax and capital gains rates to it too.

And that would produce an extra $30 Billion per month?
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Garioshi posted...

SimpleMan posted...

How would it be paid for?

Hike the top marginal tax rate up to 90% like in the Eisenhower years. Link the corporate tax and capital gains rates to it too.

Yes lets destroy the economy as long as I get muh free monies!!!!!
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Have people been forgetting that universal basic income has been talked about for a while now and that its going to happen in the usa eventually? So why are people laughing at his idea?
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Awesome posted...

Have people been forgetting that universal basic income has been talked about for a while now and that its going to happen in the usa eventually? So why are people laughing at his idea?

because "2020" and "eventually" are very different time periods
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Darkman124 posted...

as a note, i'd be interested in seeing an analysis of exactly how much of a given payout would be getting fed right back in to the VAT, assuming most people keep working

Depending on how pinpoint-engineered the VAT would be, anywhere from nothing to roughly $1200 annually.

At some point, with increased automation and unemployment, it'll probably be this or peasants dragging the wealthy from their homes and killing them all. Because people don't learn, the latter is more likely.
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When a universal basic income actually is needed, a much simpler solution is to tax the robots. And $1000 a month wouldn't be enough anyway.

This seems pointless.... add 10% tax to everything then give everyone $1000 a month. It seems to me that most people would break even or lose money.
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TheCyborgNinja posted...

At some point, with increased automation and unemployment, it'll probably be this or peasants dragging the wealthy from their homes and killing them all. Because people don't learn, the latter is more likely.

yeah. maybe in 2080 lol.
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halomonkey1_3_5 posted...

Awesome posted...

Have people been forgetting that universal basic income has been talked about for a while now and that its going to happen in the usa eventually? So why are people laughing at his idea?

because "2020" and "eventually" are very different time periods

By 2020 the usa will be in a depression so its perfect timing.
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TheCyborgNinja posted...

At some point, with increased automation and unemployment, it'll probably be this or peasants dragging the wealthy from their homes and killing them all. Because people don't learn, the latter is more likely.

Learn to build guillotines, and you'll likely be one of the last to lay in one.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Darkman124 posted...

as a note, i'd be interested in seeing an analysis of exactly how much of a given payout would be getting fed right back in to the VAT, assuming most people keep working

Depending on how pinpoint-engineered the VAT would be, anywhere from nothing to roughly $1200 annually.

did you mean 12000 annually? :P

i agree that engineering it to, for example, not apply to uncooked food, would be critical.
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It's been said before, but population growth compared to advances in automation will REQUIRE a shifting of the economic paradigm. If it isn't UBI it'll likely have to be something like a universal basic housing. The United States is sure to kick that can as far down the road as humanly possible, so in the coming century you'll have to look towards other countries to figure out working models.
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I am pretty sure some people didn't read the article in this topic. Why even waste your time posting?
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Ic3Bullet posted...

yallll

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Turbam posted...

Ic3Bullet posted...

yallll

I live in Alabama. What do you expect?

SimpleMan posted...

How would it be paid for?

A new $1000/month tax on everyone.
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In the AMA, he couldn't explain how it would be feasible though, what a shame, dumbshit.
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