>The primary reason we don't do that isn't upper middle class people demanding a status quo in their own interest -- it isn't in their interest.
I never said it was. They think it is, though, and fight cash payments tooth and nail. People don't vote in their economic self-interest when it involves new and unusual policies that they perceive as an attack. There are a lot more of them voting than there are billionaires, and they contribute quite a bit to efforts to keep things the way they are. I think breaking the pact six figure earners have with people making much more is crucial to restructuring the economy to work for people who aren't elite wealth-holders.
>It isn't about the source of the money. Converting those things to a UBI would cost less money to give people more money
We're talking about two different things. You want benefit reform. I want benefit reform, and forced distribution of productivity gains to labor, and heavy structural impediments to outsize personal wealth. You say "unintended consequences" when you I think you mean "undesirable consequences", but the funny thing is that they're both intended and desirable. Let's go back to an exec's lifestyle being tied to his job because he can't extract a huge paycheck without being taxed heavily. Please, take your money and inflate a foreign economy instead of spending it to buy elections here (if you manage to get it past the IRS).
I never said it was. They think it is, though, and fight cash payments tooth and nail. People don't vote in their economic self-interest when it involves new and unusual policies that they perceive as an attack. There are a lot more of them voting than there are billionaires, and they contribute quite a bit to efforts to keep things the way they are. I think breaking the pact six figure earners have with people making much more is crucial to restructuring the economy to work for people who aren't elite wealth-holders.
>It isn't about the source of the money. Converting those things to a UBI would cost less money to give people more money
We're talking about two different things. You want benefit reform. I want benefit reform, and forced distribution of productivity gains to labor, and heavy structural impediments to outsize personal wealth. You say "unintended consequences" when you I think you mean "undesirable consequences", but the funny thing is that they're both intended and desirable. Let's go back to an exec's lifestyle being tied to his job because he can't extract a huge paycheck without being taxed heavily. Please, take your money and inflate a foreign economy instead of spending it to buy elections here (if you manage to get it past the IRS).