fairness vs simplicity....

we SHOULD strive for fairness....  but....  only to the point....  that fairness outweighs the costs of bringing about the fairness....

the perfect example of this....  is seen in the welfare state in the united states....

the system costs MORE than the benefit that it provides....

there are hundreds of thousands of people working in the welfare state....

by my very rough estimate....  if the people who were working in the welfare state....  were working in private industry....  they could be adding at least thirty billion to the annual economy....  thirty billion....

and....  the current welfare state costs society one trillion dollars per year....  and....  let us say that ten percent of the cost of the system goes to running the system....  then....  there is another hundred billion that is spent on ATTEMPTING to end poverty....  

now....  let us look at the success of this bloated overly expensive system....  

the poverty rate was eleven percent in nineteen seventy three....  in two thousand fourteen....  the poverty rate was over fourteen percent....  so....  the welfare state....  has actually....  made things worse....  MORE people are living in poverty today....  than....  were living in poverty back in nineteen seventy three....  eye THINK that this is actually by design....  the more people living in poverty....  the more people dependent on the system....  the more people who are nearly FORCED to vote for the democrats....

now....  let us look at whether the welfare state has made things MORE fair....  

let us see....  section eight housing....  there are so many people looking for a handout....  that they have to run it based on a lottery system....  they do not provide data on the percentage of applicants who receive section eight housing....  they do not want us to know this number....  but....  the point is....  some people get housing....  and....  others do not....  based on a lottery....  now....  you tell me....  is that fair....   if your number is picked....  you get a house....  at less than fifty percent of what everyone else is paying....  if you do not win the lotery....  you MIGHT just end up on the streets....  fair....  is that fair....

the same thing goes on with low income housing....  someone who makes a certain income level.... qualifies for low income housing....  and....  someone who makes a few thousand more than the upper limit....  does not qualify....  so....  you might have someone making forty eight thousand dollars....  paying half price for their apartment.....  and....  you might have someone making fifty three thousand dollars paying full price for their apartment....  the person making forty eight thousand dollars might pay twelve thousand less for their apartment....  therefore....  their standard of living....  is BETTER than the standard of living of the person making fifty three thousand dollars....  the person working harder....  the person who has MADE themselves more valuable to society....  is living at a level BELOW the person who has not made themselves as valuable to society....  now....  you tell me....  is that fair....

now....  let us explore....  an alternative system of a moment....  a basic income....  for everyone....  a basic income that would provide eighteen thousand dollars to EVERYONE each year....  what would this system do....

first of all....  it would cost FAR less to operate....  eye bet that a hundred people could run a system that pays everyone in the united states fifteen hundred dollars a month....  that means....  the cost of running the system might be around ten million dollars....  vs....  the over one hundred billion dollars that it costs to run the current welfare state....  in my opinion....  the hundred thousand people working in the welfare state are wasted effort....  because....  you could accomplish the same goals....  you could actually achieve far better results....  with a fraction of the people working for the system....  

it would END poverty overnight....  everyone would be out of poverty....  on day one....

it would also END homelessness....  if you required people to have a physical address to receive the basic income....  eye can guarantee you....  most poeple would get a home....  most poeple would get off of the streets....  in order to receive the basic income....

now....  how about fairness....  everyone receives the basic income....  everyone over the age of eighteen....  there is NO lottery system....  there are no haves and have nots....  

one might say....  well....  this is NOT fair....  why should billionaires receive the basic income....  

first of all....  when you give everyone the basic income....  no matter what thier income level....  you do NOT create a poverty trap....  like the current social security disability system....  which gives you thousands of dollars....  until you earn a certain income level....  and....  then...  they take it all away....  it encourages people to avoid making more money....  it is a trap....  it is a poverty trap....  it ENCOURAGES people to remain in poverty....

second of all....  if you implement this with a fair tax system....  if you tax unrealized gains....  billionaires will be paying thier fair share....  for example....  someone who made a billion dollars last year....  would pay three hundred and fifty million in taxes....  do you really think it matters....  if you give them eighteen thousand of it back....  you are giving them back....  point zero one percent of the taxes that they paid....  one hundreth of one percent of what they paid....  you are making them pay WAY more than they would have paid in the old system....  do you really think it matters if you give them back one hundredth of a percent....

now....  if you ask me....  creating a basic income for all....  AND....  taxing unrealized gains....  implementing BOTH policies together IS fair....  it is as fair as it gets....

and....  how about simplicity....  is there anything more simple....  than writing everyone over the age of eighteen a check every month....

implementing the taxation on unrealized gains SEEMS like it might be complex....  taxing gains of private businesses seems like it would be extremely complex and expensive....  but....  with standardized formulas....  you could easily implement a tax on unrealized gains....  for ALL businesses....  public and private....