Our Covid response really hurt the case for UBI. It turns out, when people are paid to stay at home and not work, even for a short period of time, we get high inflation and product shortages.
This is all on top of the checks, of which there were 3.
Assuming you claimed unemployment the entire time, you would've gotten paid ~$24k + normal UI.
High inflation isn't the fault of people barely scraping by, its a reaction to supply disruptions worldwide.
I expect 10% inflation for the next decade, because of demographic shifts and deglobalization, in the US. The rest of the world will be worse as capital flees to the US.
That said, a decade of 10% inflation would be an awfully cruel joke for millennials, who experienced the worst recession since the Depression around the time they graduated university, a decade of stagnant wages, another recession and global pandemic, and then, even if they managed to find themselves financially stable (e.g., tech employees), still hard-pressed to save for retirement under the weight of inflation.
Yes, it will be bad for all of us. I've lost the ability to earn an income due to long covid, yet my income is likely to be constrained to the meager cost of living adjustments that are wrangled out of a reluctant Congress in the remaining years of my life... should I make it to age 62 in 3 years to finally get "early" social security.
There will be wage growth roughly in line with inflation, so those who can participate in the labor force won't have it as bad as I will.
I wish you all luck.
And people are blaming the stimulus checks? Shows you the power of business interests in the media.
Personally I'd like to see progressive real estate tax introduced. The more property you own, the higher percentage of its value you need to pay each year as a tax.
Though, personally I'm more in favor of a land value tax, I think op is on the right path. Having the tax pegged to factors like average wage / rent of an area would help landlords keep it in check, though.
This tax could also be starting not from 0% but from negative value owners of a single small property might get tax credit that could help them with their mortgage in the environment of dropping property prices. For larger families with larger single properties UBI could help.
As for land value I'd like to treat the land as just another property and include its value into the total value that the tax rate is based on. I wouldn't pay attention too much about local wages. I think that information influences property values that the tax rate should be based on.
There might be secondary effects as well. Like dropping prices of properties might make land for new developments cheaper.
(Which I guess is still technically people staying home, but its a bit different if you're being forcibly locked in your apartment in China vs what the "lockdown" was in the US)
Being paid to not work is just as conditional as being paid to work.
People are incentivized to meet the condition. Paying them to not work means they are incentivized to not work!
This marketing that redirects blame onto “inflation”(a gov failure) or “people being at home” or “shortages” only serves to distract while corporations post profits, layoff while kicking back to shareholders, and continue to pay as little as possible for the labor.