Money doesn't disappear. If you give people a basic income, they'll spend it. On rent, beer, education, their kids, all the things people normally spend money on. And some of it is going to come back to all of us in one way or another. Maybe more people will have money to buy apps or pay for services offered by hn members' startups. Or they'll buy lottery tickets and the additional money that goes to education will be used to hire consultants or custodians for schools. Or they'll spend more money at Wal-mart, some of which will be used to purchase some kind of software from a tech startup. Money always trickles back up, especially when it's put into the hands of low income people who tend to spend more than they save.
This adds up to a discount on the cost of BI. Increase taxes by X% and you get back Y% in increased spending. Of course everyone won't benefit equally, but there will be plenty of good times to go around. Don't worry about moral judgements regarding who is working and who isn't. As long as they're spending it will mean more for you.
But it can be used efficiently or inefficiently. For example, if there are two bread bakers, and I can pay $10 to one and he makes two loaves, or $10 to the other and he makes one, then the money has not disappeared but one use produced more goods for society.
>Money always trickles back up, especially when it's put into the hands of low income people who tend to spend more than they save.
Where do you think savings goes? It is most certainly invested back into society, and is not generally spent on consumption. Giving money just so people can consume will mostly make more of the goods they consume. If you want future looking invention and innovation, you need savings that can be lent to startups, businesses, and other uses.
The thing to do is take a step back from money and consider production and consumption.
A basic income would hopefully create some increase in consumption.
The more interesting question is what it would do to production. The big fear is that it would cause a drop in production, a drop big enough that mean consumption would have to drop below where it is today.
>A basic income would hopefully create some increase in consumption.
But you took the money to pay for basic income from someone else. They would have used it for consumption and possibly investment (or savings, which is also invested). So it is not at all clear this would result in a better economy.
This adds up to a discount on the cost of BI. Increase taxes by X% and you get back Y% in increased spending. Of course everyone won't benefit equally, but there will be plenty of good times to go around. Don't worry about moral judgements regarding who is working and who isn't. As long as they're spending it will mean more for you.