With Basic Income, We the People are no longer dependent on Big Corporations to have strong families and a good quality of life. I propose that we give every person over the age of 18 a basic income of $30,000 annually, which is enough to make a living even if the Oligarchy considers us disposable. Basic Income returns the power to the people -- now, corporations are dependent on us for their continued existence. If they do not treat us fairly, then we do not have to work for them -- we're still making a living. If a landlord jacks up the rent too damn high, we can move somewhere where the cost of living is lower.

The main question with Basic Income is, how would we pay for it? As of 2010, there were 234.6 million people in the US over 18 years of age. If we multiply that number by $30,000, then we get around $7 trillion that we need to come up with. But, it can be done. Here is how we could come up with the money. We could make common cause with conservatives, because it would reduce the size of government and return money to the people. And many people vote Republican because they are fed up with the massive waste in our system. If we make common cause and take on government waste, then we can free up a big chunk of the money we need.

Cut Defense Spending to 1/3 of Current Level:

Cutting defense spending to this level would still leave us with the strongest army in the world. Current discretionary defense spending is now around $600 billion. Cutting two thirds of that would save $400 billion of taxpayer dollars.

Double Tax Rate of Top 10%:

The top 10% of taxpayers (over $125,000/year) account for 70.17% of federal revenue as of 2012. Total income tax revenue for 2012 was $1.4 trillion. Of that, the top 10% of taxpayers paid around 980 billion. Their tax rate would still be lower than historic tax rates, which were in effect before Ronald Reagan took office. So far, we have raised $1.38 trillion.

Make it Taxable:

Making Basic Income taxable at a 10% rate would bring a return of $700 billion given the $7 trillion we need to raise. Raised so far: $2.08 trillion.

Robin Hood Tax:

This tax on Wall Street speculation, sponsored by Bernie Sanders, would curb the kind of rampant speculation that led to the Great Recession of 2008. It would raise, according to their figures, an estimated $300 billion annually. Raised so far: $2.38 trillion.

The Heritage Foundation:

People may wonder why the inclusion of the Heritage Foundation on a Democratic Website, but this chart lists 50 examples of wasteful government spending totaling around $750 billion. A few of the most blatant examples:



A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. Examples of taxpayer-funded purchases include gambling, mortgage payments, liquor, lingerie, iPods, Xboxes, jewelry, Internet dating services, and Hawaiian vacations. In one extraordinary example, the Postal Service spent $13,500 on one dinner at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, including "over 200 appetizers and over $3,000 of alcohol, including more than 40 bottles of wine costing more than $50 each and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold." The 81 guests consumed an average of $167 worth of food and drink apiece.

The Pentagon recently spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida.

The Transportation Department will subsidize up to $2,000 per flight for direct flights between Washington, D.C., and the small hometown of Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY) -- but only on Monday mornings and Friday evenings, when lawmakers, staff, and lobbyists usually fly. Rogers is a member of the Appropriations Committee, which writes the Transportation Department's budget.

Washington has spent $3 billion re-sanding beaches -- even as this new sand washes back into the ocean.

Total raised: $3.13 trillion.

Universal Employment:

Creating universal employment and putting everyone to work is the most difficult portion of this plan. We can start by putting wind or solar in every US city that wants it, allowing more generous immigration laws since immigrants create jobs, and facilitating the creation of mom and pop enterprises (as opposed to the corporate welfare state we have today). It is a topic for another diary, but if we were to put everyone to work who wanted it, we can raise around $1.1 trillion. There are currently 8 million people looking for work who are on the unemployment rolls, and there are another 93 million who are considered "unemployable" by corporate America and dropped from consideration in unemployment stats. This masks the true extent of the disaster that our corporate welfare state has created. Multiply that by the present per capita personal income ($42,693) and divide by the resultant income tax rate (25%), and we get $1.1 trillion.

Total raised: $4.23 trillion.

Hampton Roads:

Hampton Roads has the following calculator that we can use to raise/save even more money. We played around with it, and here is what we came up with; the figures are from Hampton Roads:

Alcohol tax; 50 cents on six pack of beer; 40 cents on fifth of liquor -- $63.6 billion.

Regulatory fees and fees for private sector use of federal services, land, and waterways -- $21 billion.

Restore the 1950 Corporate Tax except for corporations under $500,000 -- $1,695,000,000,000. Back in 1950, the Effective Corporate Tax Rate was around 50%; Bernie Sanders noted in a popular meme last year that the corporate share of government revenues was 33% back in 1952 and 9% today. The IRS reports that nearly all corporate tax revenue comes from corporations making $500,000 or more, which means that we could even reduce or eliminate the rate for mom and pop stores.

Repeal tax breaks for oil, gas, and mining -- $33.8 billion.

Extend period for depreciating cost of certain investments -- $272 billion.

Impose annual fee on large financial institutions -- $64.4 billion.

Increase cigarette tax by 50 cents -- $37.4 billion.

Raise individual income tax rates by 2% in addition to doubling upper income tax rates -- $1.388 trillion.

Impose tax of $25/metric ton on greenhouse gas emissions -- $1.06 trillion.

Raise maximum yearly income taxed for Social Security -- $460 billion.

Increase motor vehicle fuel excise taxes by 35 cents & adjust for inflation -- $452 billion.

The total money raised from the Hampton Road site comes to $5.547 trillion. The total amount raised is $9.774 trillion.

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One question is what we would do with immigrants and their eligibility. The following forms of identification could be acceptable to prove citizenship or legal status -- Birth Certificate, driver's license, bank account with a valid US residence (since they already require ID), immigration papers or transitional papers (if Comprehensive Immigration Reform is passed) showing you are authorized to live & work in this country, or a voter registration card. We have 11-12 million undocumented immigrants living in this country; allowing them to have basic income as well as passing Comprehensive Immigration Reform would allow them to come out of the shadows. The Declaration of Independence says that all people are created equal, not just all Americans. Coming up with a permanent solution for immigration without Donald Trump's police state is a topic for another diary. We could also start by only making US citizens eligible and save the discussion about non-citizen eligibility for another day. But that risks making inequality even greater if we can't achieve reform.

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We deliberately sought to raise more than what was needed, in case we don't achieve full employment or the reduction of carbon means that carbon tax revenues are lower than expected. What has been raised is enough to pay everyone over 18 $30,000 a year and adjust for inflation.

This program should be in addition to the welfare programs we already offer. There will be much less need for them under this plan; however, they should always be there in case someone slips through the cracks. This also goes for Social Security as well. There would be a lot lower administrative costs in running our government when everyone has a basic income; these are intangibles and we do not figure these in our calculations.

We can do this program in addition to single payer healthcare. That is because single payer would pay for itself. The fact that people could use it for elective care outweighs the waiting times that opponents says is a dealbreaker; lifespans in countries that have it are higher than ours. And there would be more economic activity since there is less time lost to illness since people would be taking responsibility for their own healthcare.

And since everyone would have $30,000 more to spend, that leaves people with a lot more disposable income. That means that there would be a lot more economic activity, which would create jobs and drive up wages on its own, allowing us to have a $15 minimum wage that our unions are working for. One parent could stay home, meaning that children would receive much better supervision than there would be with two parents working. It could even foster a new renaissance in art and culture here in the US. Someone could stay home and devote all their time to art or literature and not worry about where the next food or income will come from. Or, we could go back to the land and grow our own food, like the flower children tried to do back in the 1970's. The Constitution posits the promotion of art and science as one of our country's main objectives; when everyone has enough to put a roof over our heads and have our own food, we will be able to create our own wealth and not be dependent on the whims of certain greedy members of the 1%. With ISIS destroying countless artifacts, including the Palmyra Arch, we can create a new culture which is based on freedom and equality.

Recently, Ta-Nehisi Coates mainstreamed the case for restitution to the Black community for slavery and 400 years of inequality. We can just as easily make the case for restitution to the Native Americans seeing that we killed millions since Columbus "discovered" this continent. The amount of money we would need to pay cannot be quantified since it was done over hundreds of years; some even make the argument that our country was founded to protect the institution of slavery since there was a serious movement to end it in Britain at that time. But with Basic Income, we would, for the first time, create equal opportunities for Blacks and Native Americans to succeed and fulfill the promise of the Declaration of Independence, which states that everyone is equal. Giving everyone Basic Income avoids the arguments some might make against restitution by claiming that we are just giving them special rights at the expense of the rest of us. This does not mean we should stick our heads in the sand and pretend that we no longer have to worry about police brutality or discrimination. But it would give Blacks and Native Americans the resources they need for a move so they could simply move out of a community whose police are engaged in brutality.

If we, as Democrats, were to adopt this plan and implement it, it would be the basis for the creation of a permanent majority. The Republicans might try to undermine it, but once won, it would be very difficult for us to go back to a time like the present where there is massive inequality and the government and corporations are running roughshod over us. People would not take kindly to any efforts to deprive us of $30,000 a year any more than the Romans cared for anyone who tried to take away their bread and circuses.

None of this is infallible; this is simply a rough draft that can always be subject to change if someone has a better idea. But if we do not act given the rise of free trade and technology as threats to our jobs, then our poverty problem now is nothing compared to what it will be when TPP, TTIP, and robots take away our jobs.

