Housing in rural areas is usually dirt cheap.

So you can probably afford a car and a rural apartment for the cost of a transit pass and apartment in a well-connected town

Sometimes they’re marked as narrow and only one car can get through at a time.

That should be the case every 200m or so, if there is no sidewalk. It’s really effective at slowing drivers down.

With a speed limit of around 10km/h streets like that can be safe and pretty comfortable for pedestrians

And a UBI helps poor people more. If you want to help them even more still, just raise the UBI

It would just be pretty redundant. And a flat tax rate is a lot more transparent

The trick is to implement temporary measures at first. Like turning a lane into a sidewalk and a bike lane, by placing planters. Then when it’s time to renew the road anyway, the status quo only has one car lane in each direction.

In that situation there will be both the money and the will to build a grade separated sidewalk and bike lane.

Flat rates at the maximum tax rate and an UBI that replaces the progressive tax system. Where is that 33% coming from? That clearly isn’t the maximum tax rate in your jurisdiction.

I’m aware that there are different progressive tax systems. But to my knowledge they all have a maximum tax rate. One that’s, by definition, higher than any other possible tax rate

That statement is just about how there’s no means test.

Yes. If someone has a million times the median wealth, there’s something wrong with the system.

But how is that relevant here?

What do you mean?

For example if you earn 277k that’s currently taxed 42%. Getting rid of the progressive tax, it would be taxed 45%.

It’s not enough, to finance a sufficiently high UBI but it’s definitely an increase.

but it’s really rewarding

Exactly. I don’t even think that service could be offered any cheaper than having an employee do the repair.

But it’s fun. And it gives people insight into repairability, they can use for their next purchase.

Building apartments currently cost about a quarter million per unit. Plus interest on the mortgage. Most potential landlords don’t just have millions in liquid funds.

Nobody will be taking out loans like that if they won’t even earn their investment back if everything goes to plan.

It would replace long term unemployment benefits. And minimum pension. The benefits that are paid directly by the government, not mandatory insurance.

It would be mostly financed through getting rid of progressive taxes.

Many people also go crazy like that right after they retire. At least for a while. Structure is important for humans, and many find it difficult to create structure themselves.

But an UBI wouldn’t mean that people would suddenly be out of work. They 'd still have to work to keep their lifestyle

Statistically, university students, part-time employees and non working people in single income households are the most active in protests. They have the time, the means and the education to do so.

Wage slaves don’t have time. And if they unionize they might get fired and not have anything anymore. So they don’t.

A UBI means everyone is capable of protesting. Why would that produce hapless loosers?

Currently the tax rate is progressive. In the future it wouldn’t be anymore. But because those progressive taxes only apply to income over a certain threshold, people with lower incomes would profit more.

This system would not replace social security. If you get a pension due to age or sickness or in your first year of unemployment, you would still be covered by your mandatory insurance. Same with your mandatory health insurance. And you’d still have to pay for it on top of your taxes. The employee and the employer pay 20% of the gross income each.

We can’t jail them without a law that makes it illegal.

And if we introduce rent control, we need to replace it with other incentives to build new apartment buildings. Ideally ones that create a slight oversupply of housing. Otherwise, in a decade or so, you get cheap rent but tons of homeless people because the supply is insufficient.

Then buy a different 200€ phone?

Yes, it definitely has to be recalculated frequently. If it doesn’t, it will be about as useful as the US minimum wage after some time.

But as I said, most people wouldn’t have significantly more or less money than they do today. At least I carefully calculated those numbers so that most people would have pretty much the same, for Germany in 2019. So I don’t really expect prices to go up drastically.

It’s not that people suddenly have 1000€ extra. Either their unemployment benefits get replaced by that UBI, or they now have to pay an extra 1000€ in taxes.

I’m a big fan of the concept of an universal basic income. Where everyone gets ~1000€ every month from the government. For children, the parents get the money.

And I mean everyone. Every legal resident. Including billionaires.

To finance it I would tax both income and capital gains at ~50%. From the very first € you earn.

The net tax load on most people would not actually change much. But it completely gets rid of situations where if people work more, loose their benefits and end up with less.

1000€ should be just about enough to life a frugal lifestyle. A flat with a partner or flatmate in a small town. Produce to cook a flexitarian diet. A public transport pass and a bicycle. A Samsung Galaxy A17 with an internet plan. And all those other real necessities of life.

If people want luxuries, they will still have to work. Someone still has to produce those consumables after all. But everyone should be able to get all of their basic necessities covered.

I would be taking care of other people’s gardens. I’d encourage them to let me build habitats for native wildlife. And doing work outside is just so relaxing.

And I would build an alarm clock app, that lets you set the alarm according to the weather. It would allow you to set up alarms for snow and black ice. That way you can clear your section of sidewalk and use alternative transportation options to get to work.

Or maybe I’d open a repair-shop. One that also allows people to do the work themselves with tools and instruction.