I'm against Basic Income funded by taxation. It's got to be funded by a wealth fund, or else by printing money

submitted by Gracehoper from self.BasicIncome

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[–]Gracehoper[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

I find it a reasonably persuasive idea

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter_money

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/business-35418946/quantitative-easing-for-the-people

http://blogs.reuters.com/anatole-kaletsky/2012/08/01/how-about-quantitative-easing-for-the-people/

I mean, governments/central banks have to issue money somehow, and that has to get into people's hands somehow. The normal way is to issue it via banks that then give loans, but why not cut out the middle man?

[–]Tom_Bombadil 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Central banks are privately owned institutions.

If it's money issued by a central bank, then it's loaned money and had to be payed back by the taxpayer.

If the US ends the federal reserve, then that's a different context.
End the Fed.

[–]Gracehoper[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Central banks are privately owned institutions.

No they're not. They're public-sector.

had to be payed back

Most countries never pay off their debt. The United States was debt-free on Jan 8, 1835 and on no other day in its history. Debt is a bogeyman, not something that needs to be realistically worried about in macroeconomic planning.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Really???

Care to provide some examples of these public sector banks?

[–]Gracehoper[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_central_banks

Care to provide an example of a private-sector central bank?

[–]Tom_Bombadil 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

The US Federal Reserve.

The Bank of England.

Every Western Central Bank is privately owned.

[–]Gracehoper[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve#Structure

The Federal Reserve System has a "unique structure that is both public and private"[49] and is described as "independent within the government" rather than "independent of government".

The U.S.'s Fed derives its authority from Congress and its Governors are appointed by the U.S. President. Calling it private is misleading.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The debt is owed by the citizens.

Private banks issue the money.
The government pays interest on the money that is loaned to it by the Fed.

The profits are private.

The Fed is the greatest scam in history. It charges interest for all money for all of the US wars.