FRIBIS Director, Prof. Dr. Bernhard Neumärker, was a guest on the show “Das liebe Geld” (loosely translated as “Our precious money”) on Radio Sol in July 2024. In conversation with the hosts, Ilse Pforr and Gerhard Pellegrini, he addressed the topics of basic income and tax policy.
Neumärker advocated the necessity of a paradigm shift in both the world of work and in the tax system. He explained how a Universal Basic Income could enable people to focus on meaningful activities.
Another point of discussion was the need to simplify the existing tax system. Here Prof. Neumärker criticized the current complexity of this system and argued for more transparent, simpler models. He emphasized the need for tax systems to be fundamentally adapted to modern needs and realities.
He also elaborated on the connection between basic income and new tax models, particularly in the context of consumption taxation. FRIBIS research shows surprising results here.Contrary to common economic assumptions, financing a basic income through value-added tax would not lead to decreasing but rather to increasing tax revenue. Here he argued that conventional economic models are unable to capture the positive effects of a basic income because they are based on outdated premises.