OK, i'll bite.

Give me an impossible to abuse welfare system

Guaranteed Minimum Income.

Everyone over the age of 18 gets a check from the government for 1,000 dollars a month. The only qualification to get the money, is being 18 years old, being alive, residing in the united states and being a citizen or permanent resident of the united states.

Short of creating fictitious people, with fictitious identity documentation, its virtually impossible to cheat it.

So don’t tell anyone that your grandma who lives with you died in her sleep. And definitely don’t mention that your 21 year old brother is off backpacking Asia (how long does he have to be gone for that to even be cheating?)

Well, social security fraud already happens, nothing new there, I'd likely blend this with social security anyhow - so you'd move to the social security schedule upon retirement - in no case however would anyone bring home less than they would under the minimum income scheme.

I'd probably allow anyone who was not working overseas for longer than a year to continue to draw it, its really about your permanent residence and where it is - on the other hand the number of americans who work abroad is astonishingly small - so probably not enough to worry about.

That doesn’t come even close to being “virtually impossible to cheat”.

Explain to me how you'd cheat then?

I just gave you two methods off the top of my head. I’m saying it is easy to cheat, not “virtually impossible” as you claimed.

one of them I eliminated by defining the rules in such a way that it wouldnt be an issue - the other requires keeping a rotting dead body hidden somewhere.

Part of what a GMI would need to overcome is ensuring that we have an accurate tracking program - a death should trigger an semi-automated removal from the rolls - as in you need to present yourself.

No system is foolproof, and even the best one in the world is going to have upwards of 2-3% fraud - that said the social security administration historically has been VERY good about tracking them down, and remarkably successful at clawing overpayments back.

In the end, by eliminating means testing you close down a ton of venues for fraud.

> No system is foolproof, and even the best one in the world is going to have upwards of 2-3% fraud

I agree, and that’s why I would never say it was virtually impossible to cheat one.

You could take that 1k per month and buy crack. That's what he's trying to say.

and so? they could do that with their paycheck too.

No system in the world is going to stop people from doing stupid shit - you try the best you can, but at the end of the day, people have to choose to do the right thing.

the one that doesn't exist.