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Comment by mey | Hacker News Reader

Imagine if we gave everyone $20/mo. No strings, tax free, not qualifed by income. That obviously isn't enough to live on, let alone buy food. But imagine the infrastructure that would be universally in place to allow us to scale it up as a society. We could find the balance. Maybe it's $1000, maybe it's $5000. Maybe another global pandemic happens and we need to dump an infusion into people's lives for a time. Just having the system would be powerful.

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As a society, do we need to worry about where this money will come from? Or will there always be an inexhaustible supply that also scales up? Or could taking that money away from other parts of the economy possibly cause harm, to the point where the ubi would become unsustainable?

Do we as a society know where money comes from now? Could the current distribution of money be denying ourselves greater value? Is the current system sustainable?

> Do we as a society know where money comes from now?

Technically, yes. The only difference between money and an IOU is the formal paper trail (i.e. accounting). The paper trail tells where the money comes from. Granted, we as a society don't always follow the paper trail, which is perhaps what you are meaning?

What the parent means, though, is that money still needs a real, live person standing behind a promise to provide something in the future to whomever holds the IOU (money). Without such a promise, the IOU (money) doesn't mean anything. But who is offering to make that promise? Are you volunteering your services?

Interestingly, the UK is pretty advanced in terms of digital benefits infrastructure with its Universal Credit system, which works pretty much like a Negative Income Tax.

let's make it 200 credits/mo, sounds cooler

also the credits expire each month for extra fun

> But imagine the infrastructure that would be universally in place to allow us to scale it up as a society.

What kind of special infrastructure is needed? Doesn't your government already have a system in place for sending tax refunds to its people? That's ultimately all your $20/month is.

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