Milton Friedman (! no kidding - honest!) argued that persons making less than a specified minimum should receive a "negative income tax" ("NIT") -- effectively a guaranteed annual income.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_income_tax
THe Family Assistance Plan, based on the NIT, was twice proposed to Congress (a Democratic Congress) and twice rejected by that other famous liberal Richard Nixon. Four More Years! Re-Elect The President!
My junior? year HS, 1973!? (gaak), the guaranteed annual income was the national HS competitive on-topic debate topic for the year. It was a totally mainstream idea.
--- Dwayne Monroe <idoru345 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Jordan:
>
> It seems to me that there's a certain level that's
> humane and just and affordable ... and insufficient
> for the significant majority of people who want more
> than that. But really, I think we're at the point
> where there's not enough work to be done by all the
> people we have, so better it should be done by
> people
> who want to do it -- and thus get more than whatever
> the minimum is. But the minimum should be way
> higher
> than it is today.
>
> [...]
>
>
> ...............
>
>
> This brings back a memory - probably error ridden.
>
>
>
> Didn't Buckminister Fuller insist (using more or
> less
> the same arguments you're making in this thread)
> that
> people should receive a basic living wage - just for
> being members of a technologically well equipped
> civilization? As I recall, he believed there'd be
> more than enough of us innately pushed by our simian
> busy-ness demiurge to get the world's work done.
>
> So there'd be little danger of, say, inadvertently
> creating a planet of people waiting for something
> good
> to come on the Atomo-tele-screen but too lazy to get
> off the ultra alpha wave relaxant couch to produce
> any
> of it.
>
>
> After years of laboring in the dilithium mines of
> IT,
> I can honestly say I'd love for a Noah's ark load of
> folk - at least - to stay the hell home to focus on
> their gardens, tend to their kids, volunteer and
> generally enjoy a quiet life. Everyday I'm dealing
> with people who really just don't want to be around
> and who engineer obstacles and create tension
> because
> of their deep-seated unhappiness.
>
>
>
>
> .d.
>
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