Federally sponsored basic income – a guaranteed cash payment to all citizens – is used to combat poverty in some countries. Questions on how such a program would be sponsored and what effects it might cause in the U.S. are discussed here. One option considered is a negative income tax, set at the poverty line and with a 50% phase out – which is the subject of an analysis by Jessica Wiederspan, Elizabeth Rhodes and H. Luke Shaefer cited here.

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