Tweet to add your voice to this opinion request:
Sent to: Bill Gates
Date: 02/08/21
Subject: Your 2021 Annual letter "The year global health went local".
Dear Bill Gates,
Your 2021 annual letter makes no mention of Universal Basic Income (UBI), which is the simplest, most effective and immediate solution to inequality and therefore, indirectly, to health care literacy and access. Funded with a consumption tax (sales tax or VAT), UBI basically means that everybody shares a % of own consumption equally to everyone else. Sharing means caring, so without it there can be no kindness.
The "healthier, more equal future for all" you reference in the annual letter is indeed a great objective, but please explain what approach could possibly achieve that better and faster than UBI+VAT. What's better than directly and immediately setting a minimal threshold to everyone's spending power, with funding coming (ultimately) from people who consume way more than they need?
With their basic consumption covered, people can suddenly relax and get into a kinder and more collaborative mindset. That's critically important for public health too since defeating a pandemic is a team effort that requires social cohesion. And let's not forget the massive benefits to public health (especially mental health) of the stress relief and enhanced social friendliness that sharing inevitably brings about.
Please also notice that UBI makes food banks superfluous, and that, within capitalism, UBI would be the ONLY thing that's truly free (everything else is 'no honey, no money', in other words 'prostitution'). What society do we want to leave behind for future generations? What does the current cut-throat competition for survival teaches children about humanity and civilization?
However the real engine of change is not UBI. That's actually replacing income taxes with a consumption tax! Consumption taxes provide an astute, simple, durable, market-friendly and democracy-friendly foundation for social democracy.That's because, unlike the income tax, consumption taxes prevent the size of government from stifling economic competitiveness, and therefore pre-empt the pushback that free markets inevitably exhert against the income tax.
The income tax is basically a negative subsidy for domestic products, a pinnacle of economic cluelessness. Consumption taxes don't sabotage their own economy, because they don't discriminate against domestic products, thus allowing the economy to stay competitive no matter how high the tax rate. This is CRITICALLY important and it means 'big government' suddenly becomes economically competitive and thus politically viable.
Nobody needs billions, so giving them away is common sense that, unfortunately, many people lack. It's nice you're not among them. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are remarkable people, likely exceeding both my intellect and determination. But electric cars, online shopping, ferrying humans around outer space are small objectives when compared to finally making kindness a working, stable, society-wide reality.
Please use your billions to decisively support the transition to a UBI + VAT + NO income tax system. This will trigger a chain of events that will ultimately turn the cut-throat jungle into a civilized society, proving an irreversible milestone in the history of mankind. No greater, more consequential achievement than this. And it might be ALL within YOUR reach.
Andrew Yang was a missed opportunity for America this past election, but hopefully in 4 years. And your help could make the difference! Or please get behind some other honest, credible politician supporting the same reform (FairTax would work too, the prebate, which is UBI, is modest but would inevitably grow).
Tomorrow is not a certainty, so that mark on society we plan to make as a gift for future generations is something that we should do it right now. If we want a kind society for our children... there's no way around UBI+VAT.
Sincerely,
@sharetax
PS
For a comprehensive and robust, yet clear, overview of the case for FairTax reform (pretty much the same as UBI+VAT+NO income tax), please see my website www.sharetax.org/ov.html. I will post this message, and any answer at www.sharetax.org/emails.html .