yea im not saying improve anything

income tax is immoral

It's also explicitly prohibited in the Constitution, if I remember correctly

not 100% sure on that one, but there was an amendment, which nullifies the prior

so it technically is constitutional now

sadly

16th so sad

Shit, you're right

Oh, well

Anyway, though, I think it would be a lot more helpful for poor people if we 1. Cut social programs en masse, and simultaneously 2. heavily promoted charitable giving

@Benjamin Henry what do you think makes individuals who have money give charity to those in their community

Familiarity

@Benjamin Henry that may be one part of it

there are others

Yeah, there are things. Altruism, vanity, guilt, etc. But motivation isn't the thing I'm most worried about. It's inefficiency

Bureaucracy. The more middlemen, the fewer dollars actually make it to the people who need it

everything is about incentives

I know, for me personally, I'm far more likely to donate to charity if I just know where the money is actually going

i would go to say in the function of chance to give charity, social value would be one of the biggest factors

people want to be acknowledged of their good deeds, if we start to praise those who give, they will give, for there is value in being known as a 'good' person

I agree

the reason charity used to be so more common was that it was actively praised

Exactly, and that was likely before there were so many social programs, so much FORCED charity

And also, there was a motivational stigma to receiving social assistance through the government

bingo, a negative incentive

one that would destory your social value

My parents used food stamps, and it was obvious to anyone else at the supermarket if you had them

They looked like Monopoly money

the country has shifted though, it is now good social value to talk about how the rich are evil and hoarding wealth, that there is justice is taking their wealth and giving it to the less wealthy

one only needs to look at twitter

its a virtue signal circle jerk

Things certainly have changed

It's now the government wards browbeating the productive people into accepting them

i would rather have yangs universal basic income than food stamps, it atleast increases freedom so that the people can choose what they want to spend their money on

ideally neither

but in reality, i dont see welfare or UBI going away without large systematic failure

no. that's dumb.
that simply further removes incentive to do better.

it's other ppl's money - u don't have any claim to "freedom" in that circumstance

if they're going to do UBI, then they (at the same time) need to drop a bunch of other programs. I don't want UBI mostly because if you give them an inch, they'll try to take a mile. UBI would be up for increases every election season

let me say again, ideally neither

sure