NZ UBI Chatter
Mar. 29th, 2016 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
birguslatroIt seems the New Zealand Labour Party would do a test-run of a Universal Basic Income in a town or region before deciding if it should go nation-wide. I doubt it'll even get to that, but curiously, the NZ Treasury did some sums on a Guaranteed Minimum Income in 2010.
The numbers they came up with look pretty grim, they saying it'd probably increase poverty and would require about a 50% personal tax rate. It was based on company taxes staying the same though. (Note I've not ploughed though the details of that PDF.)
It was also based on a $300 minimum income, that being about the average for beneficiaries and superannuitants then. By contrast, the minimum wage was about $13 an hour then, or about $500 a week. Assuming a 50% tax on that $500 (and none on the $300 minimum income), a worker on the minimum wage would be almost twice as well off as someone not working. ($300 vs $550). So better off than before even if the tax rate was zero for someone on the minimum wage, which it wasn't.
The perceived carnage for those on middle-incomes and higher will make this a political non-starter though. Or at least until it's shown to work elsewhere - such as in Switzerland, Finland or Canada, all of who are going to give it a go in one form or another.
The numbers they came up with look pretty grim, they saying it'd probably increase poverty and would require about a 50% personal tax rate. It was based on company taxes staying the same though. (Note I've not ploughed though the details of that PDF.)
It was also based on a $300 minimum income, that being about the average for beneficiaries and superannuitants then. By contrast, the minimum wage was about $13 an hour then, or about $500 a week. Assuming a 50% tax on that $500 (and none on the $300 minimum income), a worker on the minimum wage would be almost twice as well off as someone not working. ($300 vs $550). So better off than before even if the tax rate was zero for someone on the minimum wage, which it wasn't.
The perceived carnage for those on middle-incomes and higher will make this a political non-starter though. Or at least until it's shown to work elsewhere - such as in Switzerland, Finland or Canada, all of who are going to give it a go in one form or another.