Liberty Pen: Firing Line With William F. Buckley- Milton Friedman on The Negative Income Tax

Source: Liberty Pen-Professor Milton Friedman- 

Source:Liberty Pen

I do not like Milton Friedman’s idea of what he called the Negative Income Tax. Or today what people on both the Left and Right are talking about which is the National Basic Income. Because for this idea to work we as a country have to rely on a low-skilled low-income population to be very responsible with the money we are giving them. When up to this point in their lives they haven’t been very responsible with their lives at all. And in many cases this is why they are on public assistance right now. Not finishing high school, having kids before they can take care of them. This may sound harsh, but these are facts.

Now I do like Milton Friedman’s idea of subsidizing independence when we are talking about our less-fortunate population. That is with the current system people on pubic assistance the more money they are able to make on their own, they go back to work, perhaps set up a small business in their own. Like taking care of their neighbors kids or doing other laundry. To use as examples or going back to work in a traditional way. The money they get is taken away from their public assistance benefits. Instead of letting them keep all of that money.

What we should be doing instead is allowing for people on public assistance to be able to make as much money as they possibly can legally on their own. And still allow for them to keep their current public assistance benefits up to the point that they are no longer in poverty. That they are now making enough money to get out of poverty. So we encourage economic independence instead of punishing people for seeking it.