[ExI] Friedman and negative income tax

Stathis Papaioannou stathisp at gmail.com
Tue May 5 00:52:44 UTC 2009


2009/5/5 Dan <dan_ust at yahoo.com>:

> Doesn't that fall under a "value disincentive" explanation?  Yes, some might take the payments, but there's a strong disincentive for it under at least some conditions.  Once their condition changes, they no longer take it -- whether that includes merely the availability of jobs to feel good about or because the income is higher.  (Of course, on the latter, one might expect marginal effects -- as when someone might be disinclined to work merely to make a small improvement in income.  In this case, what's small depends on the person.  Were this, too, not the case with most people, I'd expect we'd see lots more people working ever longer hours to make ever more money.  In fact, even people not on the dole often make a certain level of income and then prefer leisure or non-work to more money.  I've found myself in this position often too.)

Yes, and that's fine. It would only be a problem if there were a
disincentive for anyone to work, although then wages would probably
rise to compensate.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou



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