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Comment by yummyfajitas | Hacker News Reader

A glib response: I'd love your opinion on the merits of deporting unemployed Americans with $0 in savings to Liberia.

More seriously, suppose we had no BI or other welfare state - what is the harm of allowing an Indian to show up in NY with no money or job? The only cost I see is that he might annoy 30-100 potential employers before he finds someone to pay him $7.25/hour to wash dishes, making him richer than 95% of his countrymen. He might sleep on the street for a little while.

Now, there are real worries - he might eventually become a citizen and vote for Indian-style governance (see, e.g., the voting behavior of Mexican Americans), contribute to a corruption-tolerant culture, or other such things. But those are second order worries.

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> I'd love your opinion on the merits of deporting unemployed Americans with $0 in savings to Liberia.

Don't import them and provide them with a basic income? I was just saying that while we'd actually have to review some other policies that would be affected, many of our policies are sub par at best, so I fail to see how either limiting immigration to X amount of people a year or simply paying them X a year is a fail for basic income.

> What is the harm of allowing an Indian to show up in NY with no money or job?

I'd rather look at MI as an actual citizen's benefit. Maybe a year wait from immigration? If our current policy is to bring people over who have no means of funds or help or work, and who require assistance, then IMO that's a bad policy.

Also, what would be the largest difference between our current system and one where everyone who's lived in our country for a year, and is currently living in our country, gets X amount yearly? If you ask me, the risk for this person remains the same, and our obligations only begin once the person has established themselves within society at large by way of working or find assistance from family or friends or loans.

"MI"?

Minimum income

Note that minimum income is a very different (and to my mind far worse) proposal. If you make $Y and $Y < $X, you're paid $X - $Y. Which means there's no reason to work unless someone is offering you a wage above $X.

> $7.25/hour to wash dishes, making him richer than 95% of his countrymen.

Once you adjust for NYC's cost of living, he'd probably be poorer than his countrymen. Even a large percentage of Americans couldn't afford to rent an NYC apartment.

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