The Floor

The Math

Someone making $40,000/year

1. You make $40,000 in wages
2. 50% tax on wages = $20,000 take-home from work
3. Plus your UBI: $48,000
4. Total income: $68,000 — with healthcare included

A couple, both working

• Combined UBI: $96,000/year
• Healthcare: covered for both
• Any additional work income: taxed at 50%, kept at 50%

A couple testing the water

One spouse keeps working and stays on the current system. The other opts into UBI. The combined household income depends on what the working spouse earns — it could be more or less than $96,000. They could cut back hours, find more meaningful work, feel less stress. A natural transition where one person tests the water first. It’s a learning experience for the couple AND for others watching how it works out. Real-world proof of concept.

Most working Americans come out ahead — even after the 50% rate. Until you get to around $100,000 in income, you’re further ahead than you are now under the current system. Above that, you might not grow as wealthy as your income moves up with jobs, investments, and business — but you have peace of mind. It’s like an insurance policy, except it pays out before the disaster, not after.

Isn’t 50% Too High?

Add up what you already pay: federal income tax, payroll tax (Social Security and Medicare), sales tax, health insurance premiums, copays, deductibles, and the time you lose navigating the system.

For most people, the total is already close to 50% or higher — it’s just spread across so many line items that you don’t see it. This simplifies it all. You know what’s coming in. You know what’s going out. And everyone gets the same deal — billionaires and Uber drivers.

My frustration is that different rules apply for each person, and those who can pay expensive accountants end up paying the least percentage. This is a fairness thing — everyone pays the same percentage, even if the actual dollar amount is more for some than others. What you get is a foundation, not a bunch of rotted floorboards where one wrong step sends you crashing through.

Think about Monopoly. Pass Go, collect $200 — that’s a UBI if there ever was one. The problem is nobody pays taxes in that game, and over time, all but one player gets wiped out. We’re pretty close to that now. The difference is: even if we go bankrupt in real life, we still have to play the game. And what most people don’t realize is that the person who wins also loses — if nobody else has money to pay rent or buy anything, the winner can’t spend either. Money has to circulate or the whole system dies.

What People Actually Do with a Floor

Some will:

• Take a break they desperately need
• Leave a job that’s killing them
• Finally start what they’ve been putting off

Most will:

• Do what they already do — with more dignity
• Have breathing room and less fear
• Contribute more, not less

Some will travel — see the country. Sometimes you have to leave to find out you belong here. And if you do find greener grass, it’s easier to start over.

Every dollar you earn, you keep half. Always. Right now, means-tested programs create benefit cliffs — earn one dollar too much and you lose your food assistance, your healthcare, your housing voucher. The floor has no cliff. Work more, keep more. That changes everything.

The system sorts itself. Someone thinks they can do better without UBI, pays lower taxes. Then their business fails, they get laid off, they find themselves caring for a loved one full-time, they burn out but the only leave of absence is unpaid — forced to stay in a job where getting out of bed becomes the hardest thing they do all day. With UBI, they can opt back in. No shame, no application, no proving they’re desperate enough. Most people will join when they’re down, not when they’re up. That might make them grateful.

All these safety programs we currently have are actually a version of UBI — we just don’t call it that, and it’s deeply unfair because of the sorting process that determines who gets it. And it hamstrings people from outperforming because then they lose it. So the argument that “nobody will work with UBI” — look at people on current programs who are doing work on the side, getting paid under the table, because the system punishes them for earning openly. With UBI, everything is out in the open.

Why Voluntary?

Why not just move everyone over? Because forcing 330 million people into a new system overnight is how you create backlash and break trust. Voluntary means people choose it because it works for them — not because someone in Washington decided for them.

High earners stay in the traditional system — they’re already winning under current rules. Working poor, caregivers, artists, small business owners, retirees choose UBI for the security. Entrepreneurs take risks knowing they have a fallback.

The one-year trial lets people test it without commitment. After one year: commit permanently or return to the traditional system. Once committed, you’re in for life. A real choice with real information.

Killing the Overhead

The current safety net runs through 15+ programs across 8 federal agencies, each with separate eligibility rules, databases, and processes. The total system overhead: $270-370 billion per year.

• $100-150 billion in direct agency administration (federal + state combined)
• $248 billion in excess healthcare billing and insurance overhead
• $70+ billion in unclaimed benefits — people who qualify but can’t navigate the system
• 11.5 billion person-hours of paperwork annually for benefits eligibility

Means-testing IS the overhead. The entire administrative apparatus exists primarily to determine who is “deserving.” Programs with universal eligibility — Social Security, Medicare Part A — have the lowest admin costs. One universal program replaces all of it.

And as more people opt in, the overhead shrinks further. Some departments may cease to exist entirely. That is the ultimate small government play — not cutting services, but eliminating the bureaucracy that stands between people and the services they need. Is that not the goal?

Rural Revival

UBI recipients can live anywhere. $4,000 a month goes much further in Union County, Levy, Gilchrist, or Dixie County than in Miami — and there’s plenty of poverty in Gainesville and Ocala too that people forget about. That means:

• Economic activity spreads across the country instead of concentrating in expensive cities
• Rural communities gain guaranteed local spending — every recipient is a customer for Main Street businesses
• UBI cannot be spent outside the United States and cannot be used as income qualification for loans
• Local economic circulation, not capital flight

But it is not a one-way flight to the cheapest zip code. Rural areas could be overwhelmed by a sudden influx. And higher-priced urban areas might offer UBI residents tax credits or housing deals to stay, because those residents are bringing in money they will spend locally. It is a market — people and communities finding their balance, not a stampede in one direction.

What UBI Actually Secures

Economist Richard Murphy identifies five things that genuinely matter in a human life — and notes that wealth alone delivers none of them:

• Security — reliably meeting basic needs. The floor provides a guaranteed monthly income with no gaps, no cliffs, no applications.
• Purpose — meaningful work or activity. When survival isn’t the job, people choose work that matters to them.
• Relationships — strong human connections. Time to be present for kids, aging parents, neighbors, community.
• Contribution — making a difference in others’ lives. Local spending circulates. Every dollar becomes someone else’s opportunity.
• Autonomy — freedom to shape your own life. Voluntary opt-in. No bureaucrat decides what you need. You do.

Questions

How is this funded?

The 50% flat tax on all income — wages, dividends, capital gains, everything — fully funds the system. Not by debt, not by printing money. Think of it like the water cycle: the money goes out as UBI, gets spent in the economy, generates income for businesses and workers, and the 50% tax collects it back. Every time money changes hands, tax is collected. Eventually most if not all comes back. Evaporation, condensation, rain, repeat. We learned about it in elementary school. This works the same way.

Why not give it to children?

You have to be of an age where you can advocate for it. At 18, you can vote, you can serve your country — that’s when you get UBI. Each adult gets the same amount. Giving it to kids rewards adults for having lots of children to get more money — you should have kids because you love them, not to profit off them. If a single adult gets $4,000, a parent gets the same $4,000. If it’s not enough for the parent, then maybe everyone gets a little more — but the childless person should stop being treated as less than. Universal means everyone gets the same deal.

What about inflation?

The UBI amount is adjusted for inflation. The 50% tax on additional income prevents runaway consumer spending.

Can I lose my UBI?

No. Once you’re in, it’s permanent. No behavior requirements, no means testing, no bureaucratic hoops.

What if I want to leave the UBI system?

During the one-year trial, you can return to the traditional system. After permanent commitment, you’re in for life.

My sister in Virginia pays state income tax. Is that unfair to her?

States would have incentive to cut their own income tax, because UBI residents inject more money into the local economy. You are bringing more to the state than someone not on UBI. States that make it attractive for UBI residents to stay or move in benefit from that spending. The market sorts it out.

What About Fraud and Price Gouging?

These are just a few of the scenarios I’ve already considered. I didn’t come up with this concept yesterday.

COVID showed us where the real fraud risk is — and it’s not downstream. Recipients spending money on groceries aren’t the fraud risk. It’s landlords who jack rent the day payments hit. It’s companies that triple prices on essentials. The predators circle the money, not the people receiving it.

The answer isn’t chasing gouging with COLA increases — that spikes inflation. That’s what happened during COVID. You jump on price gouging directly and immediately.

How? Anonymized spending pattern analysis — the same way public health tracks disease outbreaks. You don’t need to know who’s sick, just where the clusters are. Spending pattern mapping shows where prices spike abnormally. The pattern data is public. Everyone has access to the same maps. Citizens become part of the enforcement — anyone can flag a hotspot, ask why prices spiked, and avoid gougers. Distributed accountability, not a surveillance bureau.

The transparency itself is the deterrent: gougers can’t hide when thousands of people see the same heat map. And public transparency defangs government overreach. When everyone sees the same data, no agency can weaponize it — no information asymmetry to exploit. The watchers are watched. Same principle as the privacy platform.

Due process is baked in: patterns flag the hotspot, then you get a warrant and investigate properly. Constitutional from the start. No busting in without warrants.

What about individual-level fraud? Identity theft, collecting after death, multiple SSNs — most of these already exist with Social Security and current programs, with existing countermeasures. The simpler the program, the harder it is to defraud. One universal payment with one identity check is easier to secure than fifteen programs with fifteen different eligibility rules.

Won’t People Stop Working?

The Floor isn’t a living — it’s a floor. At $4,000 a month, the argument shifts: most people want more than just enough. People don’t aspire to a floor — they aspire to build.

Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend has paid every resident for 40+ years. Employment didn’t drop.

The jobs people quit are the ones they should quit. If your workforce would leave for the Floor, that’s a confession, not a critique. The Floor gives workers bargaining power — that’s how markets are supposed to work.

Most people want to do something that matters. The Floor lets them choose to — and not have to settle for the first thing to come along. Work can now be associated with pride rather than just a paycheck.

The Floor makes work worth it. Without it, every dollar goes to survival. With it, earning becomes additive — save for a better car, a down payment, start a business. Health, education, risk-taking, kids’ stability all improve. The paycheck goes from a treadmill to a ladder.

The Floor doesn’t make people stop working. It makes work matter for the first time.

Won’t It Bankrupt Businesses?

Level playing field: if every competitor faces the same wage pressure, nobody has a cost advantage from paying poverty wages. Competition shifts to who runs a better operation. Good businesses gain customers — the butterfly economy. Money circulates locally.