The main groups that were talked about that it could help are the libertarians, conservatives, progressives, and communist. This idea would not work for socialism at all. At first you wouldn’t think that libertarians would like this idea because it involves taxing, but he goes on to explain that it helps some of their principles and does not hurt any of them. Libertarians want to maximize freedom and autonomy, and the plan that he suggests improves both of those principles. So even though libertarians are against big government and most probably don’t want to be taxed to have the government have the power to do this, this plan still helps improve autonomy and freedom for the most part and so possibly please the libertarians. Conservatives like limited federal government power and this plan would limit federal government power and maintain property rights and have no negative effects. Progressivism wants to represent the interests of ordinary people and he says his plan would significantly help the interest of the ordinary person. In regards to communism, the plan is a form of common ownership, which communism likes. Communism also likes no social classes and no government. His plan reduces the powers of the government and does not affect social classes. Socialism wants government control of the means of production which does not fit in this plan, so this would not work in socialist countries.
There are many arguments against an universal basic income, such as digging in the idea that the government is the provider, it can make people not want to work, it eliminates personal responsibility, eliminates work as a way to build character, can’t afford it, and politicians will keep increasing it until it can not be sustained. I think that libertarians would agree with the first argument that it makes people rely on the government more when they should not be doing that. Even though it might increase some libertarian principles, it goes against what they are mainly about. Some people would definitely not want to work with a universal basic income but others probably still would just because they want to or they want more money. I think it might be underestimated how many people would choose to not work if they did not have to and still live comfortably, but maybe not because a lot of people would still want to make more money or they could just be bored and so choose to work. The argument of not being able to afford it goes away if you add it on to other welfare programs or replace welfare programs that are already there then it would work out. He wants it to be enacted by use of the constitution so that the politicians could not do anything with it or change it until it could not be sustained.
His plan is to have the payments connected to a percentage of the previous years GDP and not have it be geographically adjusted. That way if you live somewhere expensive, you would have to get a job and not just rely on the universal basic income money to live there. If you can’t afford it with the UBI money of about $9,000 then you need to get a job or move to somewhere you can live off of that amount of money. It would have a flat tax on all of the income that is above the universal basic income money that you get, with the percentage being specified in the amendment so it cannot be changed by politicians. There would be no other federal taxing authority. This point is what he thinks can sway the libertarians because there would be no other federal taxing other than the amount specified in the amendment, so if the federal government can not get something done with that amount of money it gets from the tax, then it is up to the state government. He wants to get rid of all other welfare programs to have this be the only one. Also get rid of all minimum wage restrictions because you don’t really need it if you have universal basic income. He also thinks this should be restricted to only US citizens.
There is increased individual freedom; it lets you walk away. The government would no longer have the need to protect companies that are too big to fail or specific industries because everyone is guaranteed the basic income. The government will be limited in what it can spend as a percentage of GDP allowing the size of the government to expand only as the economy grows. It allows new businesses to be made with less risk and better allows people to move to areas they prefer.
