Today, my brother Jon Gilbert addresses problems of income inequality and rising costs of living in the USA. In the first half of this episode, Jon presents figures showing the problem as it has manifested since the 1950s. Jon then argues that we may address the problem with a market-based solution: the use of “labor coins” to remove taxes on costs of living and transfer taxes to more frivolous expenditures. This is an interesting idea that I have never heard before, but which seems to mesh with various trends including the use of cryptocurrency and former experiments with dual-currency economic systems. We discuss the potential benefits of this solution in streamlining government bureaucracy and promoting equitable outcomes for full-time workers. Jon also discusses the possible caveats of the approach and the necessity of experiments that would assess whether the system works and how to fine tune it.
(This episode is from Dec. 25, 2021. Apologies for being late posting the slides)
