Guarantee Income Book Report

The fun about studying policies is that there are so many interesting ideas that can expand my horizon. Murray’s book was very interesting to me. While reading the first several pages of Murray’s book, I thought this was just a “crazy” people’s “crazy” idea. But when I googled who Murray was (he received B.A. in history from Harvard, and Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), I was surprised and began to take his idea seriously.
Though it may be too quick to judge his idea of guarantee income will not work, I have some doubts. First, I wonder if people would come to consensus about which guarantee income program the country should choose. Murray’s version of guarantee income is that everyone gets a certain amount of income, and then the government should abolish all other social welfare programs. Such idea suffices the principle of equality, but it certainly overlooks the importance of equity. It is unimaginable that a person with disability has no other help at all, except receiving the same amount of guarantee income as a young privileged person who works at the Wall Street. But if we say that we should have the guarantee income, and at the same
From an economic perspective, we would like to invest minimum input and receive maximum return. But I did not see this policy would work that way. For example, the marginal utility for giving people who live under the poverty line $10,000 would be much higher than giving Bill Gates $10,000. Since this is the case, why not provide more resources for people who need the most? Some people may argue that the mean-test program would stigmatize people who receive welfare. Though it is a valid argument, I think the government should adjust the way they deliver the services. Though it is far from perfect, using the EBT card to replace the food stamp is a good example to destigmatize people living in