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US Can Afford Universal Basic Income A new study using 57 years of Census data finds the cost of a poverty-eliminating UBI has fallen sharply over time. One of the most common objections to universal basic income is simple: we cannot afford it. A new peer-reviewed article published in Basic Income Studies challenges that assumption, […]
Soomi Lee (Blog Editor) Basic income pilot programs have garnered attention, with initiatives like the SEED program in Stockton leading the way. These programs, often studying the effects on individuals’ financial and mental wellbeing, have provided us with the potential benefits of guaranteed income. However, their impact on local economies has been somewhat constrained due […]
Source: Christopher Weyant, New Yorker Cartoons As my book, Universal Basic Income: Essential Knowledge, discusses, the traditional approach to poverty and inequality relies on conditional programs designed to make most forms of aid to the disadvantaged consistent with mandatory participation. Programs with genuine conditions cannot eliminate poverty, homelessness, or economic destitution because they have to have some punishment for […]
Michael Lewis I recently attended the 21st Annual Basic Income Conference, which was held in Chicago, Illinois. While there, I moderated a panel on universal vs. targeted cash benefits. One of the presentations on that panel was focused on the crucial topic of marginal tax rates (MTRs). As I watched that presentation, it occurred to […]
Significant structural disadvantages for people of color exist in the United States. These disadvantages will not go away until U.S. citizens work together to eliminate them. UBI will not eliminate structural disadvantages, but it can help. Most people of color are workers, and half of people of color are women, and so all of the […]
All or most of the arguments in part 8 apply to women as much as they do to men. Women make up about half of the workforce, and women are disproportionately subject to harassment, low-wages, poor working conditions, and disrespect on the job. The power UBI gives people will be very good for women in […]
Underlying the work ethic, reciprocity, and exploitation objections are two questionable presumptions: that UBI is somehow bad for workers and that there is a recognizable dichotomy between “workers” and “UBI recipients.” My book, Universal Basic Income Essential Knowledge, shows that a modest UBI system is a direct net benefit to nearly 50% of households, and a […]
The exploitation objection to UBI, which goes hand-in-hand with the reciprocity objection, is essentially the following. Most of the goods people might buy with UBI require labor. Therefore, people who receive UBI benefit from the labor of others with no obligation to contribute their labor to production. Opponents say that this feature of UBI allows […]
The above discussion answers one of the most common arguments against UBI, the allegation that it provides something for nothing in violation of a principle of reciprocity under which everybody who gets something gives something back. The phrase “UBI is something for nothing” has it exactly backwards: property-based economies without UBI are something for nothing. […]
The “work ethic” means different things in different contexts. Probably the most relevant definition of it is the belief that everyone who can work for what they get, but no such principle can be used to defend the existing economic system. Dana Fradon, New Yorker Cartoons The science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein included an excellent […]
