Wages for Housework Act

[Simfan34]

Not a region, maybe like a a county?

[TNF]

Not a region, maybe like a a county?

I am fine with either. Perhaps the Secretary of Internal Affairs could provide us with the counties with the highest poverty rates in the country? Those seem like they would be good places to test out such a program.

[TNF]

Hagrid?

[President Tyrion]

Pick a county at random..... Santa Clara!

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Sorry, this has been seen. Adding it to the list. I was very busy last weekend for some reason...

A bunch of updates are coming shortly.

[TNF]

Thank you, Mr. Secretary.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Sorry for the delay, gentlemen. Here's a list of some of the most poverty-stricken counties in the country. I'm not prepared to definitively call them the 25 poorest counties or give out firm figures (to me, that's  a job for the GM, and since it seems like I'll be playing a role in administering the program, I don't want there to be a conflict of interest), but I'm confident in saying that these places have seen persistent poverty. I tried to match them up with Atlasia's regional economic indicators as best as I could.

In alpha order by state, they are as follows:

Wade Hampton Census Area, Alaska
Apache County, Arizona
Clark County, Idaho
Madison County, Idaho
Owsley County, Kentucky
Wolfe County, Kentucky
East Carroll Parish, Louisiana
Holmes County, Mississippi
Humphreys County, Mississippi
Issaquena County, Mississippi
Leflore County, Mississippi
Guadalupe County, New Mexico
McKinley County, New Mexico
Luna County, New Mexico
Socorro County, New Mexico
Sioux County, North Dakota
Allendale County, South Carolina
Buffalo County, South Dakota
Shannon County, South Dakota
Todd County, South Dakota
Hudspeth County, Texas
Willacy County, Texas
Zavala County, Texas
San Juan County, Utah
Whitman County, Washington

Numerous regions have passed legislation changing the names of some of their counties. While I respect the legitimacy of those changes, they were not reported to the Department of Internal Affairs so I don't have that information on hand.

[TNF]

Thank you for your input, Hagrid.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

3. The BIPP shall be administered via the local affiliate units of the Department of Internal Affairs. Said program shall be 'opt-out', meaning that the Department of Internal Affairs (hereafter DoIA) shall send checks to all residents of the above counties over the age of 16 unless said residents fill out a form (designed and provided by the DoIA at regional offices) requesting to opt-out of the program.
4. All income derived from the BIPP shall not be subject to local, regional, or federal taxation.

Section 3: Funding
TBD
[/quote]

[TNF]

Senators have 24 hours to object.

[TNF]

The amendment has been adopted.

[TNF]

Alright, so how are we going to fund this thing?

[Cranberry]

Are there any estimations on how much this would cost?

[DemPGH]

We don't have a GM right now, and in his absence I want to thank Hagrid for all this. No one has expressed interest in the GM position except SirNick, and I cannot appoint him for another 17 days, assuming that he re-registers. I figure he will.

I would be okay with Hagrid coming up with some cost for this, or a bipartisan group of two or three with Hagrid coming up with some cost figures. It will be quite high, I imagine, and I think for the new budget we'll need to have this in there. And we cannot forget about it. Putting it in the budget would be one way of saying, "Hey, we're running this program."

In five years, of course, this place likely will be completely different, and that's a long time to run a program, so we should keep that in mind as well. I'd shorten that to 12-18 months, honestly.

[TNF]

Might we be able to fund this via a partnership with the Regions in which it applies?

[Cranberry]

I don't think we should lay this off to the regions. Such a program likely will cost a great deal of money, and from my opinion in the Pacific, I know it's hard to get to even a small surplus, which this bill would again destroy, without the regional governments having any saying in this. So I will not support this if it costs the Pacific one cent.

We should take DemPGH's method, putting it in the budget and think about funding it then. Maybe we could then finance it by a modest increase in, I don't know, property tax or whatever, or with just shifting money from that point and that point to this.
Anyway, we can't work productively if we don't have at least an idea on how much this is going to cost. Surely this is very much work for Hagrid, but until there is no GM, who can do it?

On a side note here - SirNick wanted to become GM, but he can't re-register until I think still three weeks... Is there no way through a senate resolution or an executive order or anything to permit him an earlier re-registration, so he can fill that essential position?

[Lumine]

On a side note here - SirNick wanted to become GM, but he can't re-register until I think still three weeks... Is there no way through a senate resolution or an executive order or anything to permit him an earlier re-registration, so he can fill that essential position?

It's a complicated issue, but you might argue that there is a loophole in the Fair Deregistration Rights Act, considering that it states a deregistered Atlasian cannot be elected. Consdering the GM is appointed and approved by the Senate and it's not technically elected by the voters, I don't know if that can be considered an actual loophole (and it could lead to another court case).

Besides, our Constitution (so well written and so infalible) doesn't talk about deregistration unless it's triggered automatically by inactivity.

[Cranberry]

On a side note here - SirNick wanted to become GM, but he can't re-register until I think still three weeks... Is there no way through a senate resolution or an executive order or anything to permit him an earlier re-registration, so he can fill that essential position?

It's a complicated issue, but you might argue that there is a loophole in the Fair Deregistration Rights Act, considering that it states a deregistered Atlasian cannot be elected. Consdering the GM is appointed and approved by the Senate and it's not technically elected by the voters, I don't know if that can be considered an actual loophole (and it could lead to another court case).

Besides, our Constitution (so well written and so infalible) doesn't talk about deregistration unless it's triggered automatically by inactivity.

We could try this then? By the time the Supreme Court will give its ruling, the two months will be long pased, and SirNick will again be a registered Atlasian? Plus, this is an emergency situation, since we have had no GM for over two weeks now, and we seem to need one every second bill... Hagrid does a splendid job, but he can't do everything, that's simply too much...

[Lumine]

On a side note here - SirNick wanted to become GM, but he can't re-register until I think still three weeks... Is there no way through a senate resolution or an executive order or anything to permit him an earlier re-registration, so he can fill that essential position?

It's a complicated issue, but you might argue that there is a loophole in the Fair Deregistration Rights Act, considering that it states a deregistered Atlasian cannot be elected. Consdering the GM is appointed and approved by the Senate and it's not technically elected by the voters, I don't know if that can be considered an actual loophole (and it could lead to another court case).

Besides, our Constitution (so well written and so infalible) doesn't talk about deregistration unless it's triggered automatically by inactivity.

We could try this then? By the time the Supreme Court will give its ruling, the two months will be long pased, and SirNick will again be a registered Atlasian? Plus, this is an emergency situation, since we have had no GM for over two weeks now, and we seem to need one every second bill... Hagrid does a splendid job, but he can't do everything, that's simply too much...

Well, I would vote to confirm SirNick since I know he could do a magnificent job (I wish he had been picked instead of Napoleon of all people) and we need a GM, but if the loophole actuallt exists this could also create a dangerous precedent (it would be to abuse the Constitution after all), and given that the past month has seen a good number of situations regarding ambiguity it has its dangers. Once again, we really need to do something about the Constitution...

[Cranberry]

On a side note here - SirNick wanted to become GM, but he can't re-register until I think still three weeks... Is there no way through a senate resolution or an executive order or anything to permit him an earlier re-registration, so he can fill that essential position?

It's a complicated issue, but you might argue that there is a loophole in the Fair Deregistration Rights Act, considering that it states a deregistered Atlasian cannot be elected. Consdering the GM is appointed and approved by the Senate and it's not technically elected by the voters, I don't know if that can be considered an actual loophole (and it could lead to another court case).

Besides, our Constitution (so well written and so infalible) doesn't talk about deregistration unless it's triggered automatically by inactivity.

We could try this then? By the time the Supreme Court will give its ruling, the two months will be long pased, and SirNick will again be a registered Atlasian? Plus, this is an emergency situation, since we have had no GM for over two weeks now, and we seem to need one every second bill... Hagrid does a splendid job, but he can't do everything, that's simply too much...

Well, I would vote to confirm SirNick since I know he could do a magnificent job (I wish he had been picked instead of Napoleon of all people) and we need a GM, but if the loophole actuallt exists this could also create a dangerous precedent (it would be to abuse the Constitution after all), and given that the past month has seen a good number of situations regarding ambiguity it has its dangers. Once again, we really need to do something about the Constitution...

Yeah you're right. It would have to be struck down by the Supreme Court afterwards, so it could never be used afterwards, but all this likely is not such a favourable opinion.
We absolutely need to. Yet, I don't think we will get a constitutional convention done with the current process, so should we propose an amendment to enable the Senate to call a Constitutional Convention, with a 2/3 vote or something?

[Lumine]

On a side note here - SirNick wanted to become GM, but he can't re-register until I think still three weeks... Is there no way through a senate resolution or an executive order or anything to permit him an earlier re-registration, so he can fill that essential position?

It's a complicated issue, but you might argue that there is a loophole in the Fair Deregistration Rights Act, considering that it states a deregistered Atlasian cannot be elected. Consdering the GM is appointed and approved by the Senate and it's not technically elected by the voters, I don't know if that can be considered an actual loophole (and it could lead to another court case).

Besides, our Constitution (so well written and so infalible) doesn't talk about deregistration unless it's triggered automatically by inactivity.

We could try this then? By the time the Supreme Court will give its ruling, the two months will be long pased, and SirNick will again be a registered Atlasian? Plus, this is an emergency situation, since we have had no GM for over two weeks now, and we seem to need one every second bill... Hagrid does a splendid job, but he can't do everything, that's simply too much...

Well, I would vote to confirm SirNick since I know he could do a magnificent job (I wish he had been picked instead of Napoleon of all people) and we need a GM, but if the loophole actuallt exists this could also create a dangerous precedent (it would be to abuse the Constitution after all), and given that the past month has seen a good number of situations regarding ambiguity it has its dangers. Once again, we really need to do something about the Constitution...

Yeah you're right. It would have to be struck down by the Supreme Court afterwards, so it could never be used afterwards, but all this likely is not such a favourable opinion.
We absolutely need to. Yet, I don't think we will get a constitutional convention done with the current process, so should we propose an amendment to enable the Senate to call a Constitutional Convention, with a 2/3 vote or something?

We might try to do that, but that would mean stripping the regions of one of its powers, and that has complications as well, xD. I'll do some research to see if something can be done regarding the Constitution, because we have reached a limit in regards to ambiguity...

[Dr. Cynic]

On a side note here - SirNick wanted to become GM, but he can't re-register until I think still three weeks... Is there no way through a senate resolution or an executive order or anything to permit him an earlier re-registration, so he can fill that essential position?

It's a complicated issue, but you might argue that there is a loophole in the Fair Deregistration Rights Act, considering that it states a deregistered Atlasian cannot be elected. Consdering the GM is appointed and approved by the Senate and it's not technically elected by the voters, I don't know if that can be considered an actual loophole (and it could lead to another court case).

Besides, our Constitution (so well written and so infalible) doesn't talk about deregistration unless it's triggered automatically by inactivity.

We could try this then? By the time the Supreme Court will give its ruling, the two months will be long pased, and SirNick will again be a registered Atlasian? Plus, this is an emergency situation, since we have had no GM for over two weeks now, and we seem to need one every second bill... Hagrid does a splendid job, but he can't do everything, that's simply too much...

Well, I would vote to confirm SirNick since I know he could do a magnificent job (I wish he had been picked instead of Napoleon of all people) and we need a GM, but if the loophole actuallt exists this could also create a dangerous precedent (it would be to abuse the Constitution after all), and given that the past month has seen a good number of situations regarding ambiguity it has its dangers. Once again, we really need to do something about the Constitution...

Yeah you're right. It would have to be struck down by the Supreme Court afterwards, so it could never be used afterwards, but all this likely is not such a favourable opinion.
We absolutely need to. Yet, I don't think we will get a constitutional convention done with the current process, so should we propose an amendment to enable the Senate to call a Constitutional Convention, with a 2/3 vote or something?

We might try to do that, but that would mean stripping the regions of one of its powers, and that has complications as well, xD. I'll do some research to see if something can be done regarding the Constitution, because we have reached a limit in regards to ambiguity...

But, considering how much it is necessary, perhaps in a time of emergency like this, the Senate can do so, especially considering that the constitution should be a national issue. We're not going to get the kind of support necessary in the way we go about it now. For an issue such as this, the Senate should have some power.

[Cranberry]

On a side note here - SirNick wanted to become GM, but he can't re-register until I think still three weeks... Is there no way through a senate resolution or an executive order or anything to permit him an earlier re-registration, so he can fill that essential position?

It's a complicated issue, but you might argue that there is a loophole in the Fair Deregistration Rights Act, considering that it states a deregistered Atlasian cannot be elected. Consdering the GM is appointed and approved by the Senate and it's not technically elected by the voters, I don't know if that can be considered an actual loophole (and it could lead to another court case).

Besides, our Constitution (so well written and so infalible) doesn't talk about deregistration unless it's triggered automatically by inactivity.

We could try this then? By the time the Supreme Court will give its ruling, the two months will be long pased, and SirNick will again be a registered Atlasian? Plus, this is an emergency situation, since we have had no GM for over two weeks now, and we seem to need one every second bill... Hagrid does a splendid job, but he can't do everything, that's simply too much...

Well, I would vote to confirm SirNick since I know he could do a magnificent job (I wish he had been picked instead of Napoleon of all people) and we need a GM, but if the loophole actuallt exists this could also create a dangerous precedent (it would be to abuse the Constitution after all), and given that the past month has seen a good number of situations regarding ambiguity it has its dangers. Once again, we really need to do something about the Constitution...

Yeah you're right. It would have to be struck down by the Supreme Court afterwards, so it could never be used afterwards, but all this likely is not such a favourable opinion.
We absolutely need to. Yet, I don't think we will get a constitutional convention done with the current process, so should we propose an amendment to enable the Senate to call a Constitutional Convention, with a 2/3 vote or something?

We might try to do that, but that would mean stripping the regions of one of its powers, and that has complications as well, xD. I'll do some research to see if something can be done regarding the Constitution, because we have reached a limit in regards to ambiguity...

But, considering how much it is necessary, perhaps in a time of emergency like this, the Senate can do so, especially considering that the constitution should be a national issue. We're not going to get the kind of support necessary in the way we go about it now. For an issue such as this, the Senate should have some power.

That's the main problem with the current way - we will never get to trigger a constitutional convention.
Proposing an amendment might be a way, but that will possibly be just rejected by the public, I'd assume...

[TNF]

Once we come up with a figure for this, we could simply slap a wealth tax on all income over $1,000,000,000 to fund this.

[President Tyrion]

Sorry for a bit of a late response here, but I'm not sure if opt-out is the manner by which we can hold this.

It's tough to expect 100% of people to be informed; barring that, a sizable group of people will be expecting their welfare, social security, unemployment, and whatnot to continue, and I'm assuming that the Basic Income is, by and large, meant to replace these forms of government assistance. And an opt-out would essentially switch all these people over without warning.

With that said, an opt-in would leave the program punchless to truly demonstrate its worth, so long as we let people stay on the old program (which, long term, a supporter of a UBI should be attempting to avoid, as I'm sure was TNF's intention with the clause in the first place).

[Deus Naturae]

Once we come up with a figure for this, we could simply slap a wealth tax on all income over $1,000,000,000 to fund this.

You mean a 100% income tax on all income >$1 million? Or anyone with an income >$1 million would have their total wealth taxed by a certain percentage?