TYLER COWEN ON UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME

“The revenue required to finance a UBI would likely require shifting away from income taxes toward some sort of national sales tax or value-added tax. (Which is a good idea anyway.) One effect of basing our fiscal system more heavily on consumption taxes is that resident non-citizens, who wouldn’t be eligible for basic income transfers, wouldn’t be able to avoid paying into the system and helping to finance the UBI. Wouldn’t that make immigrants more popular?”