Free Money for Everyone! A Liberal and Conservative Dream: Part 3

In the past two parts, we went over Dr. Milsted's "Free Money For All" plan, which started with the overview, and then onto the "How Much" part.  This part is going to go over the justifications, from all sides of the spectrum that Milsted offers.  From the Liberal down to the Libertarian, over to the Progressive, and then onto the Conservative viewpoints.

The Progressives and Liberals

Progressives feel a desire to improve society as a whole, through regulatory constructs (Such as taxes) and proverbial "social safety nets".  And, with these two tools, every problem looks like a nail or a screw, and never a rivet, or a cold weld.

In other words, the more regulation you add, the more people find a way to get around the regulatory construct of taxes with "special" programs, such as various tax breaks, incentives, etc etc.  As Dr. Milsted points out, when everyone has their own little special loophole, nobody is really all that special.  Just some people are better at sniffing out the loopholes, which then Progressives and liberals respond with new taxes, new tax laws, and more loopholes.  It's a never ending, self-compounding problem.  And people always move faster than laws, so some people will always pay less in taxes than they should.

The other tool:  Social safety nets, sounds good on paper, but when implemented, exhibit certain problems, such as rewarding those who choose no work over work.  Or, punishing people for obtaining work to try and better themselves.  A perfect example of such a thing is when I was speaking to a friend about opening a savings account to create an emergency fund and first month/last month of rent to get their own place.  She is on welfare, and she told me,"If I do that, they'll cut me off of welfare, and I'll have nothing."  I was incredulous.  The first step to clawing your way to fiscal security is an emergency fund.  She would have been punished for trying to work out of needing the social safety net.

So, this plan accomplishes both goals (Ensuring everyone pays their fair share in taxes, and providing a social safety net) without adding new taxes, without adding new loopholes, and without creating new subsidies.  Everyone is going to get the same citizen's dividend, no matter how much they earn at a job.  It would exceed current benefit levels.  There are no more loopholes, no more subsidies, no more punishing those who are trying to do the right thing, and no more rewarding those for not doing the right thing.  It's about as egalitarian as we can get.

The Conservative Side

If there is anything that rails on a conservative more than giving handouts to those who choose not to work, it's government largess.

Nothing in our government is more convoluted than our tax code.  Nothing promotes nepotism and lobbying more than our tax code.  And, it's all because of both sides trying to get the tax code to benefit one group more than another.  Conservatives feel that business should get the advantage, and progressives feel as though individuals should get the advantage.

With this plan, nobody gets the advantage, and the free market has an easier time to working as it should, due to lack of distortions from our tax code.

Conservatives also get a shot at implementing what they've been wanting for year now:  Flat tax.  When you create a bottom floor with the citizen's dividend, you already get a progressive tax system, without the complications.

Conservatives will also get to rejoice at downsizing government:  No more welfare.  No more social security.  Hell, maybe even get rid of Medicare/Medicaid.  We've eliminated for sure two entire large arms of government, in one fell swoop.

The ramifications of this program could also affect the ability to remove the minimum wage, since we've already built in a bottom level of income for all people.  The free market will just work as it should, since labor would be mobile enough to move from job to job, as they pay better.  Business will be unshackled from FICA and SS withholding reporting and compliance.

By simply implementing this program, we can downsize government, nearly eliminate our tax code, and give more freedom to all people.  People are encouraged to work, in order to get ahead.  This is a conservative's wet dream here.

To conclude...

This plan, of course, will not appeal to anyone on the extreme fringe of either the left or the right.  It would, of course, appeal to 90% of Americans however.  To make any leeway here, we would need to divorce our political parties from their respective extreme fringe elements.  They wont like anything but ideological purity.  They are an obstruction to any sort of progress.

With the current political climate, I'm positive nothing can get done.  We might need to hit rock bottom before any substantive change can occur.  Hopefully, I'm wrong.

But, at any rate, next, up: The justifications for this "redistribution of wealth", that neither progressives, nor conservatives will want to hear.