Should we be taxing everyone?

I wouldn’t tax people who are having trouble with their basic needs, or even not able to save much.

No one is exempt from taxes. People may avoid paying taxes, but that is a different thing. It is easy to avoid paying taxes on income that is strictly cash, with no paper trail to reveal it.

^
Aye.

And how would you enforce a tax on panhandlers? They don’t exactly have a record of earnings you can gauge by.

Everyone IS taxed one way or another. Your panhandler is up against the same sales taxes on his rotgut wine as you would be. You need to specify just WHICH tax or taxes you’re talking about.

I like the idea of a universal basic income that Finland is trying out on a small sampling of the unemployed. Everyone is given a low level income just sufficient to get by. People with special needs may get additional money from the government, but the minimum income is deducted from what they would have received without it. You are allowed to keep in full any money you make on their own. If the system works properly, there would be no excuse for panhandling.

As for taxes, it would not make sense to tax people just making the minimum income. I would guess that it is below the amount that you can deduct from federal taxes.

@LostInParadise

I have a friend, an old teacher of mine, who feels that as automation becomes more and more prevalent more and more jobs will evaporate due to automation, and so he feels that eventually a universal basic income is inevitable.

He believes that, perhaps, a special tax placed on companies that collect and sell our data could be used to fund a UBI.

I have heard that as well. I think that it is an idea that will be gaining traction. Those on the left like it because it applies to everyone, and those on the right like it because a single lump sum could cut down on government bureaucracy.

The idea of taxing panhandlers seems wrong to me in several ways:

1. Money given to others is a gift. Gifts generally aren’t taxable, especially not small transactions.

2. Money given to others in need is a charitable donation, too. Also shouldn’t be taxed for that reason.

3. Panhandlers generally are not in good financial shape at all, and so shouldn’t be taxed.

4. It would be ridiculously unenforceable, and undesirable (to me) to live in a system that expected such transactions to be tracked, accounted and taxed.

5. People who are resentful of money given to panhandlers such that they want them taxed or punished in other ways, in my opinion need psychiatric work, rather than indulgence of their resentful notions.

@LostInParadise

I read somewhere (it’s been awhile back, and I couldn’t possibly find the source now, so take it for what it’s worth) that for the money we spend on welfare (not just money dispensed, but money spent on bureaucracy, means-testing, combating fraud, etc) we could grand every adult citizen in the US around $10,000 or so per year.

@Darth_Algar eventually a universal basic income is inevitable

I seem to remember that being one of the promises of technology; more free time, and eventually freedom from “wage slavery ”.