A most ridiculous article. Taxes are a coerced payment. It does not matter if you get the service or not. The government is not a business and your relationship with it is not really contractual. The government decides and enforces the legality of any purported contract and determines its relation with the people it rules. This is true in the best of times and we are now in the worst of times. We face a government which increasingly will take what it wants and dismiss whomever it chooses.

The historical US government is no longer anything but a pretense. The biowar aspects of the Covid “vaccines” should demonstrate the true attitude of this government towards the people it rules. It is injecting the troops which purportedly defend it. What does that really say to all who will have eyes to see and will use the bioweapon concept for perspective? All the author is doing is to point out that the facade is wearing thin and the face of political indifference is showing through. The relevant performers are waiting for the show to close and then move on.

The government is in the process of transformation into a very different entity from the historical past. If this government no longer has any interest in the people it rules except to be rid of them why should any real effort be put into repairing anything when it breaks down? All that is needed is to maintain the facade for awhile longer.

The medical system is close to failure in many places. Nurses are walking away because of mandated Covid jabs. So what? Large parts of the relevant populations will likely be dead in a year anyway. Why bother? The whole thing can run on inertia except for the Covid jabs program until it cannot. The Covid jabs program will be a fuss and bother until all the injected are dead.

One should view the old order as a stage set being dismantled around the actors who still think the show continues. To their surprise they are learning as the lamps and chairs are carried out, military bases abandoned, citizens and personnel left to their fate that the show is over.

Asshole.

I’m from Canada,

A little better here but also big problems. The Civil service is so incompetent they are a National joke. I find the best way to get attention is by not paying them. as to immigration, well nobody likes that, here’s hoping the Globalist monster gets killed in it’s bed.

It’s good to see you’ve come around to acknowledging that your government is pointless, useless, worth jack shit. But then, Why are you admonishing it? Why are you talking to it like it gives a shit what you think? This piece comes across like a teenager on the cusp of atheism, praying out of residual brainwashing. You don’t yell at a blivet. What you do is discard it, set up parallel government, go over the government’s head to the world, fuck it up.

“basic bureaucratic services”

Bureaucrats are parasites. Fuck bureaucrats.
Boycott them all.

☮

Taxes is how sovereign money is removed from an Economy. It is the sink.

Sovereign Government spending is how money is introduced into an Economy. It is the source.

Within the system, money has a conservative (meaning not created or destroyed) quality.

Money does not circulate. It flows from one to the other with some looping.

Money is Fiat by definition. It is an instrument of trust, like a Stock Certificate or a Financial Bond. It only has value because others are willing to exchange actual wealth for it. It is a transaction medium, it is not a storage of wealth. If your money is backed by gold or by somebody or by nobody, its value is only dependent on the faith that it is redeemable. Nobody is going to take your gold backed [Insert Monetary Unit Here] if the backer isn’t trusted.

Anybody can generate IOUs, and as long as people trust them, they contribute to the “Money Supply”.

Gold and silver are not money. They can be used to manufacture money, just like copper, nickel, zinc, and paper. When you use gold and silver for purchases, you are bartering, not buying.

Traditional economics says a government has to tax in order to spend. This is backward at the sovereign level. If you take the traditional interpretation, where does the money come from in the first place? Oh yeah, that’s the biz of the Bankers, aka Moneychangers.

Sovereign Government spending should be rock steady. This steadies the Economy. Tax revenue is correlated with economic activity. When activity goes down, the money supply builds up until it starts sloshing around again generating more revenue. When activity goes up, more taxes are paid, and the money supply is reduced, which then slows the economy.

This is important. Money should be time expired. Seven years is a good term. This prevents using it as a storage device and imposes a theoretical upper limit to the money supply.

This creates an inherently stable economy where business cycles are naturally muted.

Tax and spend only what you tax (and borrow the rest at a price of tribute) is inherently unstable and needs active management having a large pool of available liquid capital (financial instruments with a high degree of trust to tangible assets) to control. This is an exhaustive task where the price of success is an opulent lifestyle with the resentment of the populace, and the price of failure is a collapse of your lifestyle and suffering at the hands of said populace. I pity the fools who painted themselves into that corner.

In a maximum Libertarian political system, government spending should simply be a per capita allocation to the populace and you take it from there. However, there is a little thing called “Economies of Scale” which says some spending is better done with pooled capital. For this, the best solution is what we got, several levels of government. E.g. Federal/State/County/Municipal in the US model (except Louisiana use Parish for County). So it makes sense that the money being introduced into the economy be split among these levels, but if we exclude the individual we are clearly being anti-Libertarian.

Temporally, this should be done daily. Let’s call it money from God, making the “In God We Trust” literal. The Bible clearly states that your workmen should be paid in the evening and not be delayed (Deuteronomy 24:15) and we are instructed to pray for our daily bread (Matthew 6:11).

The only information the Sovereign Government needs to keep on a person is that they exist (have an account) and the municipality in which they reside so the proper municipal and state governments get their allocation.

Please note that if a municipality’s cost of housing somebody is lower than its share of a person’s daily source allocation, then it has incentive to provide such housing which appears to be “free housing” from the populace’s perspective. This not only solves homelessness (there will be competition among municipalities to attract well behaved living bodies), it also frees the housing market. By this, I mean a market is not free unless either party can readily walk away in every transaction. This is the exploitation which is the biggest source of rentier income by far.

Each person’s daily share of the allocation looks like a UBI. It isn’t “Socialism”, it is your birthright. It was stolen.

What you do is discard it, set up parallel government, go over the government’s head to the world, fuck it up.

You need to be careful with language like this. Do a search on “is advocating the overthrow of government free speech?”

If this is on your own, congrats, an incident was just added to your record (I don’t doubt you are already on ‘that list’).

If you are a paid agent, you just committed a high crime.

“You” didn’t beat nazi Germany. After the battle of Stalingrad, a mere 20% of the Reich’s military potential was left.
“You” swept in for spoils, after the main battles had been fought.

before stopping entirely because of a spike in COVID-19 cases in Afghanistan, though no one has explained what the novel coronavirus has to do with immigration, given the existence of vaccines

Maybe you’re unaware of this basic fact. But, you don’t vaccinate an individual if they’re exhibiting the disease you’re vaccinating against. And, you don’t need to be vaccinated once you’ve recovered from the very disease you’re being vaccinated against. Anyway, it takes up to two weeks for your body to develop antibodies after being vaccinated. So vaccinating on the fly has about much use as chicken shit on a pump handle. Especially when you’re President is doing everything he can to leave Americans behind while hauling unvetted Afghans by the thousands, if not the hundreds of thousands, to the US to enjoy all the amenities of an overly generous welfare state.

As for your whine about government failing at it’s most basic services. This only goes to show that government services are not only extraneous but only serve the purpose of expanding the carbon footprint and budgets of said governmental departments. I contend that the vast majority of government workers are blacks and women whose main purpose is to push papers around their desks and attend meetings on how to increase their budgets and to implement the Marxist woke agenda.

But, woe be it, if any white were to offend some transgender by not using the right gender pronoun. Or bending the knee to some criminal ghetto ape. Or, failing to pay your State or Federal taxes by the required due date. It’s so bad now, offending some privileged BIPOC or LGBT is such a grievous sin that it results in the government dropping a ton of bricks on any white supremacist caught in it’s crosshairs. And, don’t even start with the Biden regime trying to pass laws making it illegal to speak ill of the Biden regime or vaccines.

I don’t know why you’re complaining now. I’m more than sure you’ve spent the vast majority of your professional career advocating for ever bigger government and socialized services. Now that your much vaunted dream of a socialist utopia has come true. It has been exposed as the worthless sclerotic morass it has morphed into, which by the way is on par with the government of the late great USSR.

Only now you wake up to complain about the services rendered. Where is any sense of responsibility for helping to usher in tyrannical and overbearing Leviathan? We all have responsibility for the state were in. We took our eyes off the ball. We valued creature comforts over the hard rocks of Liberty and personal responsibility.

We threw away our freedom for bread and circuses.

Bureaucrats are parasites.

Remember in the old days of the internet, the first person who called somebody “Hitler” or a “A Nazi” automatically lost the argument.

Let’s start the same practice with anybody who calls anybody a “parasite”. Henceforth, as I might be guilty myself.

Fuck bureaucrats.

I have. In a good way literally, and in a bad way figuratively.

Boycott them all.

Interesting moniker (unless it’s your real name) for some one making such a economically nonsensical statement. Read my comment in #6 for some real economics.

Advice: Quit acting like a fool.

“but the U.S. government’s failure to process their applications for Special Immigrant Visas in a timely manner highlights the breathtaking scale of dysfunction, or nonfunction, to which too many Americans have become accustomed.”

Ha! The US government here can’t even process passport applications. I was at the post office the other day and the clerk was explaining to the person trying to submit an application that it would likely take 3-4 months to receive their new passport. Of course, if they wanted to go to the SF passport office, they could file a special request, pay double or triple the fee and get it done in a couple of weeks. The person didn’t want to understand that he needed to pay an effective bribe to get fast service on his passport app. He stood at the window for probably 10 minutes while the lines of waiting people kept growing, going back and forth, back and forth, somehow thinking that this low paid post office clerk had any power to really assist him.

That being said, one of the major causes of poor government service is the unionized workers. Unionization among all levels of government workers from local to state to federal should be banned.

Grab all the money you can! It’s unlikely that you’ll ever be caught, let alone prosecuted. The government is too busy with the Jan 6 criminals.
——-
The Biggest Fraud Ever Perpetrated Against the U.S.
Craig Eyermann • Saturday September 4, 2021 8:35 AM PDT

The scamming of pandemic unemployment relief benefits is now being described as “the biggest fraud ever perpetrated against the U.S.” by private security experts. What’s really scary is that it may not yet be over.

The story is back in the news because those experts have done more work to identify where the money has gone instead of to the unemployed Americans to whom it was intended. NBC reports:

Russian mobsters, Chinese hackers and Nigerian scammers have used stolen identities to plunder tens of billions of dollars in Covid benefits, spiriting the money overseas in a massive transfer of wealth from U.S. taxpayers, officials and experts say. And they say it is still happening.

Among the ripest targets for the cybertheft have been jobless programs. The federal government cannot say for sure how much of the more than $900 billion in pandemic-related unemployment relief has been stolen, but credible estimates range from $87 billion to $400 billion—at least half of which went to foreign criminals, law enforcement officials say.
….
https://blog.independent.org/2021/09/04/the-biggest-fraud-ever-perpetrated-against-the-u-s/

That being said, one of the major causes of poor government service is the unionized workers. Unionization among all levels of government workers from local to state to federal should be banned.

Reread #6, with meaning. Unions and a minimum wage would be obviated. Nasty jobs would require a hefty wage, hence the system would adjust to reduce nasty jobs.

And incompetents and slackers can be let go with nary a wink.

The Labor Market would be free. And so would you. And you, and you, and you…

I feel like Oprah.

Renoman———–Has Canada tried a version of Affirmative Action yet??? That will improve government services.

Randy Dazzler, why, in 7, are you trying to shut people up? Are you more comfortable with pussy snools who are scared to say what they think?

I’m not going to look up your dumb search (it sounds like the kind of shit people who still use google search on, you’re not one of those people who still use it, are you?) Unless you just fell off the turnip truck you already know your rights to freedom of opinion, self-determination, resistance, and solidarity, as well as the conditional nature of state sovereignty. A failed state like the US has forfeited its sovereignty. We’re not talking about a government, we’re talking about a criminal enterprise.

This prating about lists and high crimes makes you sound like a pantywaist. Grow a pair.

If you were to follow the link, you would find it recommends that you click on my name, scroll to the bottom and read what I have to say in chronological order.

You will find me actively attempting to squelch two classes of posters: Paid operatives and shit slingers. Any objections?

If you think I have done otherwise, point it out, I enjoy a good debate. If you don’t understand what I have said, or disagree, have at it.

Consider #7 a frustration outburst, it is not a necessary part of my narrative.

I’m pretty much done here at UNZ. When you understand what I have laid down in the record, I think you’ll change your assessment. This good man didn’t do nothing, IMO.

It is not important if 99.99% of you don’t understand what I am saying. The prattling on about the list is to let everybody know that I am being watched and engagement will likely bring them more scrutiny. Best to leave me alone, eh?

Some people have to have the simple things explained. It was also be nice if you came up with a cool screen name, it helps to know how people think in general before reacting to a single post that could be taken out of context.

I give more thought to saving a few bucks at the store than the state does when doling out billions of our tax dollars.

(Twofers are the best: two-for-the-price-of-one special offers.)

Evacuation of US embassy in Kabul doesn’t make sense unless the entire NATO-West planned the emptying to end run the other saner voices who wanted to recognize Taliban and wanted to work with them . Taliban did not attack nor had any plan to the embassy It secured the departure of the US troops . It kept its promises of not attacking US troops while negotiations was on despite itself ebing attacked.
Afghanistan since the departure of US troops has not descended into abyss or chaos and has not imposed 1999’s Shariah . It has been taking times to form inclusive government.
Meanwhile this country out of pettiness and raw anger and humiliation due its own mistakes and failures are depriving Afghan of their own money .

Sorry, I was thinking more about #10, than #7 in my reply.

#7 looks like somebody trying to get a few hotheads hopped up, a la the FBI operation on the Whitmer Kidnapping Plot just before the election.

The FBI’s actions in this case need broad MSM exposure. Will it happen?

When the tide turns on the surface.

What are you trying to say here? One paragraph contradicts another. Concentrate on two different broad alternatives: To everyone according to his abilities OR To everyone according to his needs.

Good point! The timing of the Normandy, just 7 months before the war ended, was highly opportunistic. It provided a seat at Yalta and spoils of the European war theater. Children should know the truth.

“ We beat Nazi Germany.”
Ah…the Soviets beat Nazi Germany.
The Yanks had mop up duty…

Bulgarians have a saying: правителството е най-голямата рекетьорска банда в страната.

Literally translated it means: the goverment is the largest racketeering gang in the country. I’d say it applies 100% to the U.S. federal government.

Excellent question, I’m glad to see somebody responding above knee-jerk level.

There’s no contradiction. Somebody posted the classic Blind Men and Elephant meme not too long back.

You pose the classic pure Capitalism vs pure Communism slogan (You forget the “From each ..” part on the latter).

Look at it this way instead:

So the next question becomes, what are appropriate taxes to remove money from the system? I’ve already mentioned tariffs in an earlier post.

Properties of good taxes:

* Taxes should be collected at transaction time, submitted daily

* Taxes should be paid by businesses, not individuals (except property taxes and such which don’t involve a business transaction)

* Wage taxes should be flat and paid by the business

* Earnings taxes should be flat and paid at disbursement

* Sales taxes should be incorporated into the stated consumer price

* Natural resources pricing controls the overall flow rate, and like the tariffs, should be hard to change and be expected to stay the same

* There should not be any accounting burden placed on the populace by the government

* The rules should be simple to avoid gaming the system

The economic system as I described it in #6 is neither Capitalist nor Communist. It is very much private property, minimal sized government serves the people, oriented. Usury and leasing should be discouraged, and inherently unnecessary.

Think of it as building a “To everyone according to his abilities” market competition on top of a “everyone according to his (minimal we can afford for the bottom rung) needs.”

I had two honors Marxist Philosophy classes and a slew of classic honors Economics courses in college, some forty years ago.

And if you like the catchy slogans, it goes like this: “Economic competition should be about comfort, not survival.”

The license plates for Washington DC used to read “No taxation without Representation.” I think most Americans would sign on to that deal, especially because we have 750,000 citizens per “Representative”, which means basically no representation.

Flip the statement around, and you get no representation without taxation. Sheikhs in the UAE have enough money to run the government without needing taxes, so there is no need for representation.

What do you think control of the Fed money printer does?

You are confused.

Gold and Silver are Money.
Reserve notes are fiat currency.

No state shall make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.

You cannot, at law, “buy” anything with currency as you cannot “pay” a debt with a debt instrument. Your rulers have granted you the privilege to “discharge” your obligation in equity with their private fiat currency, but your debt remains unpaid at law.

“Sovereignty itself is, of course, not subject to law, for it is the author and source of law; but in our system, while sovereign powers are delegated to the agencies of government, sovereignty itself remains with the people”

☮

You are confused.

You have no idea. The way some people think and the ideas they cling to baffle me completely.

Gold and Silver are Money.

Reserve notes are fiat currency.

Now we are onto a definitional disagreement, not one in the argument itself. Add “Fiat currency is Money”, which you will disagree with. We aren’t agreeing on the definition for common term “Money”. Legal or colloquial?

Not too many years ago there was a case where somebody tried to pay their workers in gold coins, reporting the nominal value as the income. Of course, the IRS (Yes, it should be abolished) prevailed saying the inherent or market value was the worth. So, in this case, a gold coin was definitely not usable as money, rather a traded commodity.

No state shall make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.

This occurs in a section where restrictions on what national powers states are restricted from exercising. Prominently mentioned is a prohibition on them practicing “money magick”. Thus by restricting anything that might be used as currency to silver or gold, which have always had an inherent market value, they can’t do that.

Note that profiteering from interstate inspections is prohibited too. Any excess of costs goes to the national government.

There is no where in the world right now that I am aware of where gold and silver coins are used in regular circulation. There is no doubt there are many places where physical gold is exchanged as part of transactions. Diamonds too.

“Sovereignty … itself remains with the people”

I have no essential disagreement with the full statement.

Sovereign is another term where our working definitions may differ a tad. In #6, I mention a sovereign currency meaning the currency of each economic zone, covering the entire zone. Sovereign, as in, “The Sovereign Citizens Movement”, is a legalistic thicket I’d rather not dive into. I’ll simply say I believe in a limited government, and am strongly against the death penalty for that reason.

You dropped the coda, which I think is even more significant:

“And the law is the definition and limitation of power.”

Many here probably know this, many might not, but during the Constitutional adaption process (some say coup, I’m starting to wonder), there was a strong argument against the Bill of Rights since it enumerated rights instead of defining restrictions on government. They said once you do that you open the government doing anything that doesn’t impose on those. I think they were right, but I don’t know what would have happened otherwise.

Later on there is this very strong statement of principle, which is aligned with several arguments I have made previously:

“For the very idea that one man may be compelled to hold his life, or the means of living, or any material right essential to the enjoyment of life, at the mere will of another, seems to be intolerable in any country where freedom prevails, as being the essence of slavery itself.”

Now, in the context of this paragraph “Will of another” is referring to a government official, but I think it generalizes to anyone.

In a pure Capitalist economy with a labor surplus, a certain set of people will always fall into that category. The solution in #6 resolves that very efficiently and principly.

If your sole concern about the definition of gold as money has to do with capital gains taxes, well, you don’t see those on my list above and they fail because they impose an accounting burden on a person. We got nothing to argue about there.

Notice also, the lack of inheritance taxes. They destroy the family business layer.

Property taxes would be national, and zoned. They should be assessed simply on area. This stops the punishment by taxation of improvements to your property and encourages small footprints.

Just sayin’ I’m not all “soak the rich till there are no rich no more”, that’s bad economic policy too. It’s just they are underpaying now by employing shenanigans instead of putting their efforts towards prosperity.

Sovereign Government spending is how money is introduced into an Economy. It is the source.

Correct, but I would like to clarify something.

There are three ways that money enters into any economy . . .

[1] Government spending, as you noted above. Governments that use their own currency create their currency out of thin air. Governments do not borrow their own currency from anyone.

[2] Bank lending. This money too is created out of thin air. Contrary to popular opinion, banks do not lend out people’s deposits. “Fractional reserve banking” is a myth.

[3] Foreign trade. Here we speak of foreign currency entering into an economy when people in one nation sell things to people in a foreign nation, and receive foreign currency in return. This does not apply to the USA, since the US dollar is so widely used in the world. The 50 U.S. states deal strictly in U.S. dollars.

Likewise there are three ways that money leaves any economy…

[1] Central government taxation (as you noted above). This money is destroyed — i.e. it is sent back into the void it came from. It’s like destroying points on a sports scoreboard by changing the numbers. Money has no physical existence. Money is strictly a mental entity that we represent with numbers and tokens. Central governments have no need of tax revenue in their own currencies. They levy taxes in order to assert their power, and (to some extent) to control inflation.

[2] Paying off loans. Banks create loan money out of thin air. Loan money is gradually destroyed (sent back into thin air) as the loan is paid off. Banks make their profit on the interest they charge on top of the principle.

[3] Foreign trade. If we use foreign currency to buy foreign products, then our foreign currency leaves our economy as we spend it.

SO WHAT? WHY DO I MENTION THIS?

Because you are a rare person indeed. Most people falsely think that the U.S. government, for example, borrows all its spending money from China, or from the Fed, or whatever, and levies taxes to pay back the (supposed) loans. When a person gets this false idea in his head, he closes his mind. He thinks he has discovered Great Secret. He cannot be straightened out. It’s impossible to get through to him.

You have not fallen into this trap.

Bravo.

You make other correct comments that likewise show insight (e.g. gold and silver are not money). I could explain why, and I could address more of your comments, but my own comments here would become too lengthy.

I could explain why, and I could address more of your comments, …

Please, carry on by all means. Tag, you’re it.

The foreign currency, can act as money in an economy, agreed, but you can’t pay your taxes with it. I elaborate on foreign exchange and tariffs here, in case you missed it:

https://www.unz.com/pbuchanan/cacophony-and-confusion-in-foreign-policy/#comment-4882160

The banking money, I consider covered by the “Private IOUs” in #6:

Anybody can generate IOUs, and as long as people trust them, they contribute to the “Money Supply”.

This includes cryptocurrencies as well.

I sure appreciate the kind words. I picked up on the following looking at your posts:

The central question is: do you support mandatory vaxxing?

Absolutely not.

The underlying reality is that this is a war between the forces of freedom, and the forces of tyranny.

True dat. It is the framework in which all of this should be measured. According to the Bible, God is anti-authoritarian: 1 Samuel 8 is a must read for everyone.

Yeah, I want to hear more about what you have to say about this. I thought this article and this author (He is crying for an answer, right?) was the most appropriate to drop my little Fed Killing truth bomb. As I commented earlier somewhere, they will probably be relieved to be off the hot seat.

(Bold prediction, I know, dazzling even.)

I think this is not true, or perhaps not meant as stated:

Central governments have no need of tax revenue in their own currencies. They levy taxes in order to assert their power, and (to some extent) to control inflation.

I called it sovereign, central works, and so does national in the USA case. Anyway, the currency issuing authority for the boundaried region, should only collect taxes in their own currency on domestic transactions. In trans-sovereign, or intersovereign, transactions foreign currencies might be collected.

Obviously, two sovereign authorities collecting each others currencies can exchange them at the going rate until one exhausts the other’s supply. Since these are taxes, they are not introduced as spending, but as you put it ‘removed from the board’.

The excess can be used by the government to acquire goods and services from the other region (also subject to tariffs) or sold to natives so they can purchase from the other region in their currency.

So, taxes are meant to remove money from the real money supply precisely to control inflation. If inflation goes up, prices are up, taxes go up, more money is removed.

Money is steadily being streamed in. In the long run it needs to stream out at the same overall rate.

Using the tax code to incentivize behavior at a granular level (as is currently done) is just plain wrong. Either the government has the authority to mandate some behavior or it doesn’t. Using the tax code to achieve the same objectives by imposing a burden is just plain wrong also.

The tax code should be broadly defined, largely static, simple, and difficult to change. Businesses like predictability, so does everybody else. Except a few. There’s always a few.

Taxes are the price paid for a civilised society. ‘Wealth’ beyond a certain level is always a form of theft, of parasitism on others.

What? No Israeli ‘mobsters’ and ‘scammers’? No need-most of the relief money went straight to Wall Street, and there it remains.

Pot meet kettle!

Best thing by Mr. Rall yet.

All remaining sane smart liberals (as opposed to toxic baizuo liberasts) are gradually realizing that they and the “fascist rednecks” are on the same side, no matter the difference in temperament or vocabulary.

BTW on the Eastern European internets I see much the same comments on their current state of healthcare. The hospitals and clinics appear to have decided the pandemic is the perfect excuse to stop working, returning calls, being open during open hours etc.

P.S. On the topic of the article, if anyone is in need for a solid, relatively modern post-Heinleinian sci-fi to relax in these intense times…

Math. VE Day (8 May 1945) – D-Day (6 June 1944) = 11 months
Preceded by the invasions of North Africa (1942) and Italy (1943).

The USA didn’t ‘..beat Nazi Germany’. The Soviet Union did that. The USA entered an alliance with the Nazi regime from about 1943 to guarantee the safety after the war of surviving Nazi chiefs like Bormann, obtain Nazi science and technology and place Nazis in control of West Germany. The USA is definitely the Fourth Reich, and World War Two will only end when the USA falls.

You could pay people UBI directly, then have local taxes taken from that. I think it’s better that individuals manage this money but maybe not. Maybe too many would stop working, partake in drugs and other negative behavior. But I have a link on another computer to a study of UBI showing it caused no decline in employment.

Libertarianism really isn’t what we should look at. We want the overall system to work, that’s most important. We just have a high degree of corruption and inability in our governments, it seems. So, they just can’t do much, can’t be so entrusted. If the government is providing free housing, I expect it to be poorly managed, wasteful, corrupt.

You could pay people UBI directly, then have local taxes taken from that. I think it’s better that individuals manage this money but maybe not.

Please reread what I wrote. This is exactly what I said. Also at the state and county level. Every municipality and county within a state would have equivalent per capita base funding.

Communities could tax more on some basis, but now we are getting into detail. Any spending from their allocations, or supplemental taxation, go through the same spending and taxing channels that a private organization would face.

In the US, none of the lower layers of government can constitutionally issue their own currency, except as designated. Other zones may consider it. Taxes would still have to be paid in sovereign currency and a locality could find itself in trouble.

If the government is providing free housing, I expect it to be poorly managed, wasteful, corrupt.

The housing isn’t free, it just looks like it from the individual point of view. The community has to pay construction and maintenance and the property taxes. If the municipal allocation exceeds that, and it should for simple housing, then the community benefits from the net allocation as well as the individual (UBI) local spending.

If it is poorly run then people will move away to other communities that are better managed. The poorly managed ones will whither away as their tax base evaporates. Some communities may prefer not to provide housing at all, everyone owning their own lot, paying their own property taxes. Some will be a mix. Maybe some pay the first so many square feet of your property tax from their allocation, which is the size of the “free housing”.

I think it is reasonable if a community is providing housing that they have a say in who gets to move in, and who gets to stay. Undesirables will have a tough time getting into most places and a tough time staying.

If you own your lot, then it should be harder to get rid of you. A lot harder.

What I was pointing out was under our current system, the individual share is essentially zero, and that is inherently anti-Libertarian, which probably strikes most as counterintuitive.

I am working on a longer response to your other reply. Please be patient.

And if you like the catchy slogans, it goes like this: “Economic competition should be about comfort, not survival.”

Here’s another one: “It is the proper way to harness Free Markets to pull the load fairly.”