My own private basic income
Fantastic article.<p>Some takeaways:<p>* Our economic system claims to reward "work", but the reality is that it rewards ownership and extracting economic rents.<p>* Increasing value does not necessitate that being the result of one's "work". For example, land values rising are the result of other peoples' work (eg. neighboring properties, government policies, general economy). The landowner is compensated through the labor of others.<p>* Economic rents aren't taxed enough ("The business pays property taxes, but they average about $15 per house, per month – minuscule compared to the rent we make.")<p>* Labor is taxed too high relative to capital gains<p>* "Luck" plays a huge factor, and luck and hard work aren't mutually exclusive. If I'm born into a poor family in a ghetto, naturally I'm going to have less opportunities than being in an upper class family with enough funds to perpetually support me (eg. Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates)<p>* We need a Universal Basic Income, ideally funded by taxes on economic rent (eg. land value tax)<p>Our economic system is like a big game of monopoly where all the properties are already owned. You start off with whatever money/property you inherit from your parents, and have to work yourself up. Meanwhile, the rentiers are profiting off the backs of the laborers without doing anything. Sure it's possible to add "properties" to the board (ie. starting businesses), but that doesn't scale.<p>At least Monopoly had a UBI in the form of the $200 you get every time you pass "Go".