I (think) have a simple plan that will eliminate poverty and be cheaper than welfare. I understand that this is an emotional topic so please hear me out with this. I wrote this mostly for the discussions I'm sure it will bring.

We first have to go over how welfare works and for that we need to define it. According to Merriam Webster welfare can be defined as a : aid in the form of money or necessities for those in need b : an agency or program through which such aid is distributed. Now that we have a working definition of welfare we should talk about how it works in general terms or rather how the money is spent.

According to the Cato institute the United states government spends nearly a trillion dollars every year to fight poverty. 45 million people still live in poverty in the united states. Which means that the U.S government spends 22,222.00 USD per individual (man, woman and child) in poverty. According to the U.S. Census Bureau Poverty Thresholds for 2014 a single individual is below the poverty line when they earn below 12,070.00 USD. For a typical family of four the cost per person goes down to 6,057.50 USD or 24,230.00 USD per family. This means that for a family of four the government spends 88,888.00 USD. That is almost enough to bring four families of four completely out of poverty even if they didn't earn one penny.

As we can see the welfare system doesn't work because if it worked there wouldn't be 45 million people in poverty in the United States. If the government simply wrote all these people a check for only half of what is spent on them in terms of welfare almost no one would be below the poverty line. A practical way for dealing with this is to shut down every welfare department and write every living person in the united states a check for 11,000.00USD every year that they claim on their income tax. This is a completely rational approach when you factor in that this will not be tax deductible meaning that the people that dont need in it higher tax brackets wont really even see the money after taxes anyhow.

The policy outlined also allows for people currently on welfare to get jobs as it is not up to some arbitrary law who gets assistance or not. So if someone accidentally earns more money it wont ruin their life motivating people to work harder and earn more. Universal Income will not negatively effect GDP in fact it is VERY GOOD bang for your buck in terms of increasing GDP as the excess government spending on this is brought back in taxes from those who dont need it. Additionally it will release all the human capital tied up in the various government branches dealing with this issue back into the market turning from a net negative into a net positive in terms of tax dollars spent to gained.

To me my theory seems pretty conclusive if you can think of any suggestions or if I missed something let me know in the comments. Thanks a bunch ~Mason #politics #money #economics