Universal basic income doesn’t work. Let’s boost the public realm instead

[Doka]

It doesn't work, because a lot of humans are more like insatiable, greedy, baby birds in a nest. With a "Peter Pan" mentality.



Universal basic income doesn’t work. Let’s boost the public realm instead

Anna Coote

A study of UBI trials concludes that making cash payments to all is no solution to poverty and inequality

• Anna Coote is co-author of Universal Basic Income: A Union Perspective

Mon 6 May 2019 04.00 EDT
Last modified on Mon 6 May 2019 10.29 EDT

A study published this week sheds doubt on ambitious claims made for universal basic income (UBI), the scheme that would give everyone regular, unconditional cash payments that are enough to live on. Its advocates claim it would help to reduce poverty, narrow inequalities and tackle the effects of automation on jobs and income. Research conducted for Public Services International, a global trade union federation, reviewed for the first time 16 practical projects that have tested different ways of distributing regular cash payments to individuals across a range of poor, middle-income and rich countries, as well as copious literature on the topic.
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It could find no evidence to suggest that such a scheme could be sustained for all individuals in any country in the short, medium or longer term – or that this approach could achieve lasting improvements in wellbeing or equality. The research confirms the importance of generous, non-stigmatising income support, but everything turns on how much money is paid, under what conditions and with what consequences for the welfare system as a whole.

Article

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... inequality

[Riddick]

The way I look at UBI? At its heart a huge subsidy, soon as everyone receives this baseline sum from government to work with, in time it'll inflate living costs accordingly to the point the now-insufficient UBI will have to be raised, starting another subsidy-induced inflationary cycle, and on and on it goes.

Like a dog chasing its tail it's a fun little activity for utopians to engage in but it won't get anyone anywhere.