Dream of the utopian left as liberals, the universal income arouses passionate debates in France.
Does allocating a minimum amount to everyone each month encourage people to return to work?
Does it protect against the dreaded competition from robots?
Doesn't it erode valuable labor value?
These questions are important, but they elude the essential: the basic income, or tax credit as the economist Milton Friedman calls it, already exists, so to speak.
From inflation checks to subsidies and tax-exempt bonuses, state transfers represented, in 2022, 35% of salaries received by all French households.
In recent decades, each crisis has resulted in an increased socialization of personal income.
In the 1980s, net transfers from the state were equivalent to 15% of salaries.
After the recession of 2000 at 23%, in the wake of that of 2008 at 28%.
At the heart of the health crisis, they climbed up to 40% of salaries, according to calculations…
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