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Milton Friedman - The Negative Income Tax

LibertyPen · 568.6K views · 2012-05-11 · 14:46

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Overview

A 1968 Firing Line interview in which Milton Friedman explains the negative income tax, a proposal to replace welfare bureaucracy with direct payments.

On Hacker News

The go-to primary source in basic income threads for Friedman's negative income tax idea.

Recommended by 7 HN people across 6 months · HN mentions 2012–2022

Topics

Microeconomics & behavioral economicsLabor, work & inequality
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milton friedmanbasic incomewelfarefiring lineeconomics

What people said

tomohawk · 2019-03 · Recommendation

When people focus on inequality, are they doing so because they love the poor and want to do something for them, or because they hate/envy the rich? Too often, it's the latter. Instead of UBI, a negative income tax is a much better approach. There's a lot of info out there about it, but here's a nice intro: [VIDEO]

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andriesm · 2017-03 · Recommendation

What I really don't get is, why do everyone advocate for universal basic income, instead of a negative income tax. The negative income tax model achieves the same basic income with less negative motivation for people who want to pursue work at the low-end. It also avoids wastefully paying it to people who don't need it. This is my inspiration : [VIDEO]

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raleighm · 2016-12 · Recommendation

Friedman himself would disagree with you. He supported a related idea - a negative income tax. Hear him describe it here: [VIDEO] . This is not a capitalism vs socialism or left vs right issue.

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Sources

Video by LibertyPen, played through YouTube.

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