英語検定ライティング準１級（第61回）

タイトル「日本にベーシックインカムは必要なのか？」

No, this opinion isn’t supportable.
One reason makes this argument unacceptable.

長引く不況の中で日本社会には貧困層と呼ばれる人の割合が増えてきている。数十年前には「１億総中流」という言葉もあった日本の変わりように驚かされる。
The number of people without enough living expenses has been increasing dramatically in our society in recent years, but Japan used to have a phrase “most citizens find themselves in the middle class” several decades ago, which seems surprisingly different from what Japan is.

原因は政治が悪いからとしか言いようがないのだが、今の状況を反転させるために、ベーシックインカム制度の導入を考えている政党もあるようだ。
We can safely say that our government is responsible for the current economic situation, and not a few citizens naturally require them to improve the quality of our life.
In fact, a political party suggests that “universal basic income” should be introduced into our society.

その制度とは、ある一定の金額を定期的に無条件で各人へ支給するシステムだ。これは憲法にある最低限度の生活を保証するためにおこなわれる。
This system means that every citizen regularly receives a amount of money from a government or an organization without any conditions, which is determined by Japan’s Constitution so that he or she could lead a minimum standard of life.

お金の不安にさいなまれる人が少なくなれば、窃盗や傷害などのような犯罪も減ると推測される。だがメリットだけではない。当然だが反対の側面もある。
We could assume that the number of crimes like stealing someone’s belongings or injuring others with violence would become smaller when the number of people who suffer from anxieties or concerns about their future decreases, which keeps our society stable.
There are both advantages and disadvantages in this system, however.

働かなくても生活ができるため、勤労意欲がなくなる人も出てくる。労働者が減ると政府からすれば所得税の税収が確保できなくなる可能性も出てくる。
Some citizens might think that they need not have a motivation to work hard because they could lead an easy life without any own jobs or businesses.
As a result, our government might fail to gain an income taxation stably because the number of hard workers could become smaller in the workforce.

日本の場合は国全体が貧しいわけではない。お金はあるところにはある。分配が不平等なだけだ。所得税をなくして、法人税を上げるのが先決なのだが。
There are certainly a large number of poor people who struggle in a long recession in our society, but not all of ordinary citizens have such an emotion because not many millionaires exist in Japan.
Unfair distribution of wealth must be one of the crucial causes of the current economic situation in Japan.
What seems the most effective, we believe, is that both consumption taxation should abolished and corporation taxation should be increased are the top priority, which are the most urgent assignment of our government.

This reason makes the question titled above unfavorable.