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Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Social security, Taxes and Ethics


Using tax money to fund social security programs like MGNREGA/UBI/etc seems unethical to me. This post is to explain my reasoning. Feedbacks/agreements/disagreements are welcome.

My reasoning:

There is this famous and ancient "Ant and the grasshopper" story 

Let us modify the story with two ants and one grasshopper. All three reside in a democracy whose total population is 3 - the two ants and the solitary grasshopper. Ants are hardworking, responsible and productive. Grasshopper is unproductive. The unproductiveness may be due to the grasshopper being lazy and irresponsible. It may also be due to the fact that the grasshopper had a subpar upbringing for none of its fault. 

Out of the two ants, one of the ants has a 'charity' tendency. That ant gives some food to the grasshopper once in a while. Hence in the election, the charity-ant wins by its own and the grasshopper's vote. Grasshopper remains as unproductive as ever. Winter comes. There are two scenarios:

Scenario-A: The charity-ant decrees that all ants must part with a portion of their food-stash to save the grasshopper. 

Scenario-B: The charity-ant does not impose any tax. But allows the willing & charitable hardworking population (only itself in the story scenario) to voluntarily donate to save the grasshopper.

I find scenario-A to be unethical. Scenario-B seems ethical to me.

Extending from the fable to reality, proposed UBI/NYAY/MGNREGA are acceptable as long as they are funded like scenario-B. Not through taxes, but through voluntary charity. No government should force (i.e. tax) an ant to part with its food-stash for the sake of the grasshopper (however needy it might be). There is a finite probability that the basic humanity/antity of the ant will make it donate voluntarily. A voluntary-donation is the right way to fund MGNREGA/UBI/NYAY.


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