We are already giving tens of millions of people free money.
Basic income is institutionalized poverty. It is a world where we purposefully place people in permanent poverty. Give them enough to survive but not climb out of their situation. Essentially paying them just enough so they hopefully don't try to take other people's stuff.
The danger is that far too many people will accept this standard of living. It removes a great burden from government when it realizes it can buy off people for a fractional amount of what it would take to raise them up. It also makes the "feel good" crowd happy as they don't have to do anything themselves but feel that because they paid taxes that they in turn somehow helped.
Sorry, seen too many on on SSI/SSID, section 8, and such, to believe that just handing money out helps. It simply stagnates far more than it will ever elevate. It might work in countries where your choice is a dirt hut, being dragged into some regional conflict, places where survival is questionable at best.
It is a world where we purposefully place people in permanent poverty. Give them enough to survive but not climb out of their situation.
This idea was addressed by some of the points raised in the article. Many of the homeless people mentioned in the first section spent their money to better themselves with education. Students were able to study without as much financial concern, mothers were able to spend more time with their children.
The opposite of what you said is true. Our current social welfare system is a trap. It's almost impossible to develop new skills while being forced to apply to jobs that you can never get. It's hard for someone working overtime at McDonalds to find time to go to classes or develop new skills. Some people will accommodate themselves to living only on basic income, but those people weren't going to succeed no matter what opportunities they were given. Motivated people on the margins will benefit greatly from a little financial help.
If you've seen the harm done by our current welfare systems, why don't you want to pursue alternatives? Basic income isn't supersized welfare. It's a whole new concept that will open up opportunities that a lot of the poorest people never dreamed were possible.
While some people may find a 'basic' income sufficient many of them are already on government benefits anyway. The real issue with the current system is the effective marginal income tax causes people pay effective tax rates in the 80-120+% range stranding them in poverty. With basic income that does not happen you always keep most of what you earn so working more hours always useful.
EX: Someone on unemployment can get 340$ a week for 6 months and goes away if you have a job. Minimum wage is less than 8.50$ an hour so you could make less money working a 40 hour week than taking unemployment. Social Security has similar issues where someone on disability can't take a greater job a Walmart for extra income without losing far more money.
No, basic income as a change from means-tested welfare programs is a step away from institutionalized poverty by removing perverse incentives.
> Give them enough to survive but not climb out of their situation.
The difference between basic income and means-tested programs is that it focus on giving them at least enough to survive but not reducing that if they expend the effort to find additional income, so that recipients are not inhibited from improving their condition.
The actual level of basic income can be more than minimal survival necessity of course; the practical limits depend on productivity and increase with progressive automation (which is what makes it a system well-adapted to deal with an economy evolving in a way in which mass unskilled wage labor is increasingly unnecessary.)
> The danger is that far too many people will accept this standard of living.
If too many people accept the standard of basic income for the economy to support, it will drive inflation which will reduce the standard of living provided by basic income until it is no longer accepted by too many. It has an inherent negative feedback control structure.
> Sorry, seen too many on on SSI/SSID, section 8, and such, to believe that just handing money out helps.
Those programs are not like basic income, in fact, basic income is designed specifically to address the fundamental features of those systems which make them into permanent poverty traps.
I'm not sure what the actual consequences of basic income would be, but at least this article references attempts at figuring out how such systems affect people. You're not bringing up any objections that aren't mentioned in the article.
And pointing to existing forms of welfare/social security misses the point entirely. Many who speak for basic income (including this article's author) argue that it's the heavy bureaucracy and stigma associated with such sollutions that cause people to be caught up in it.
> Many who speak for basic income (including this article's author) argue that it's the heavy bureaucracy and stigma associated with such sollutions that cause people to be caught up in it.
"Heavy bureaucracy" is a source of social cost, but neither it nor stigma are, as I see it, the real problem with means tested programs.
The real problem with means-tested programs is the perverse incentives of means-testing, which directly serve to inhibit people from progressing up the economic ladder by creating penalties for outside income (when, as is often the case, the programs have inadequate benefits to start with, this often forces people into under-the-table work just to survive, which has negative cultural effects as it erodes cultural acceptance of the rule of law.)
They're already there, this is just a less brutal version of it.
> The danger is that far too many people will accept this standard of living.
It's the best possible outcome for people rendered unemployable by automation. We can either invent degrading makework to waste their time, or acknowlege what the market is telling us--our civilization is productive enough we no longer need everyone able-bodied (and some who aren't) working for their whole adult lives.
Basic income is institutionalized poverty. It is a world where we purposefully place people in permanent poverty. Give them enough to survive but not climb out of their situation. Essentially paying them just enough so they hopefully don't try to take other people's stuff.
The danger is that far too many people will accept this standard of living. It removes a great burden from government when it realizes it can buy off people for a fractional amount of what it would take to raise them up. It also makes the "feel good" crowd happy as they don't have to do anything themselves but feel that because they paid taxes that they in turn somehow helped.
Sorry, seen too many on on SSI/SSID, section 8, and such, to believe that just handing money out helps. It simply stagnates far more than it will ever elevate. It might work in countries where your choice is a dirt hut, being dragged into some regional conflict, places where survival is questionable at best.