Copypaste from space elevator anon: CMV: Domestic taxation implies governmental incompetency
This post is motivated by the recent surge in advocacy for a basic income I have seen on reddit. Many advocates of the basic income argue that the world is wealthy enough that by simply increasing taxes on the wealthy, we can achieve a basic income for all. In this post I will (1) disagree with that contention, then (2) provide an alternative means of providing a basic income to the world's population, and (3) finally, conclude that the method proposed in #2 should be the inherent functionality of governments and works independently of the taxation power.
The global net worth per capita is $26,602. With a poverty line of $11,670 in the USA, seizure of the entire world's net worth from all people, rich or otherwise, would provide us enough resources to provide a poverty standard of living for less than 3 years. Equipped with the knowledge that the world is not in fact wealthy enough to provide a basic standard of living to it's inhabitants, we must proceed forward from the perspective of seeking to change that if we want to see the lower echelons of Maslow's hierarchy met.