> That's not what the OP is getting at. BI may work well given certain preconditions, and subpopulations. But what use is the money if resource supply and the productive capacity of the economy is limited?
I'd go further and say this is not true for most consumables within reasonable limits. Does this sound like a circular logic? I think my reasoning is flawed (I hope it is not) so pardon my thinking out loud. I mean if I define luxuries as superior goods[wiki] which we consume more of as we have more disposable income, then I imagine we might see prices increase on those things at some point but we don't mind because they are luxuries. But can we dismiss all superior goods as luxuries? If we can prove this connection, then I think we can put down this fear of inflation once and for all.
Thoughts?
[wiki] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_good Superior goods make up a larger proportion of consumption as income rises, and therefore are a type of normal goods in consumer theory. Such a good must possess two economic characteristics: it must be scarce, and, along with that, it must have a high price. The scarcity of the good can be natural or artificial; however, the general population (i.e., consumers) must recognize the good as distinguishably better. Possession of such a good usually signifies "superiority" in resources, and usually is accompanied by prestige.
But even still, I think you're better off considering that as a necessary condition, not a definition. Giffen goods[0] follow the same pattern, and they are almost always under "basic necessities".
I return to the basic question: can the PPF curve for the economy under which BI is instituted be reshaped to supply what its recipients would buy? That's the key question.
I appreciate your open-mindedness to "think out loud."
I think ~1 car per adult is enough transportation for everybody. http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-ihs-automotiv...
Half of produce in the US is thrown away. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/13/us-food-...
Healthcare is certainly lacking in the US but other countries with far lower GDP per capita have somehow managed to give everyone healthcare.
I think the vast majority of necessities are not really particularly scarce in the US and there is easily enough at the very minimum for i.e. absolutely zero homeless and starvation.
Again, it's only the rich who can afford to find tax havens and expensive accountants. The middle class is stuck paying taxes.
This is why we need the estate tax (Paris Hilton tax or death tax as opponents like to say) to stay and probably increase in rate.
> For 2017, the estate and gift tax exemption is $5.49 million per individual, up from $5.45 million in 2016. That means an individual can leave $5.49 million to heirs and pay no federal estate or gift tax.
This is plenty generous. We should tax any estate beyond that at a minimum of fifty percent and close all loopholes.
I am not a big fan of income tax on businesses but I can see why we need it.
How is it relevant to giving up citizenship and owning property or company? There's no death involved. If their children are not citizen either, they are not hit by inheritance tax too.
> I am not a big fan of income tax on businesses but I can see why we need it.
VAT is sort of like income tax for businesses. Except it's not taxed on B2B transactions. Which makes sense. Otherwise everybody would bring in whole production chain in-house and we'd be left with huge conglomerates and no SMBs.