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Comment by cannabis_sam | Hacker News Reader

What is your view on income inequality?

Do you think the start-up structure of running a business could increase or decrease income inequality (and what do you consider beneficial?)

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I think it's a consequence of technology but a real challenge for society. I think the right goal is probably to eliminate poverty--conceptually, I like the idea of a guaranteed floor but no ceiling.

I'm very interested in basic income and we're running a large experiment on it. If that doesn't work we have some other ideas.

Out of curiosity (realizing how early current experiments are) do you expect there to be any correlation between providing basic income and people engaging in entrepreneurial activity?

I'd expect the YC volume has to have given you some sense of how much "mouths to feed" affects ability and inclination to jump off the startup cliff in a wingsuit.

> I like the idea of a guaranteed floor but no ceiling

Raising that floor seems like it would simply devalue the dollar. I'm not sure how having no ceiling helps the situation.

Raising the floor logically implies redistributing real wealth to the poor from the non-poor, but implies nothing about the value of a dollar.

It seems to me that prices and wages would rise as a result of raising the floor. The important question is where the money comes from to raise the floor. If it is not from the top end, the gap between rich and poor doesn't change in terms of actual buying power. It may just widen the gap.

It doesn't have to be strictly money, but services -- ie a guaranteed level of basic food, housing, education and medical care for all.

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