Belligerati

We could abolish poverty, keep overhead costs lo, and w give people the freedom to spend in ways that reflect their values while preventing their personal problems from becoming more expensive public ones later. That reflects a harmonization of popular American values like frugality, a love of freedom, and communal responsibility for the less fortunate among us.

$5000 shouldn't be so much money that it provides much of an incentive to avoid work, but in these days of Walmart should keep families with couples fed and clothed. A modest amount of additional work can catapult a family above the poverty line.

With this policy in place, a family of two adults and two children only has to raise another $8,000 a year to live above the poverty line. At the minimum wage of $5.15, that's 32 hours a week plus 2 weeks vacation a year for one parent and the other parent not working. All the while building real savings for retirement.

But what an amazing disruption. There are about 1.7 million civilian employees for the federal government, excluding the post office. Could 10% be cut be abolishing housing aid, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security? Health and human services, HUD, and the SSA employ 136,000 people. There's got to be more savings in there someplace. This could also encourage states to follow suit, leading to additional disruptions.

All those regulations left unwritten, easily over a hundred thousand talented people freed up to go into the labor market, what an exciting possibility. He details it more extensively in his new book, In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State