Universal basic income gained national attention during the 2020 presidential race, when Democratic candidate Andrew Yang used it as his campaign centerpiece. While it has not gained enough widespread support to be used in policy as of yet, there is a growing movement in its support.
Universal basic income (“UBI”) posits that each citizen should receive a monthly stipend from the government, no strings attached. Mr. Yang put that number at $1,000 each month, but some have suggested far higher amounts. This would avoid the destructive welfare system that currently encourages recipients to remain in poverty and instead give money to everyone without a reduced amount for higher incomes.
Unfortunately for proponents of UBI, there are two major problems.
First, the bill will be enormous. If we were to replace the current welfare program with UBI, then the amount needed to sustain poor families at the level desired would create a massive spending bill.
Giving $12,000 a year to every person in the United States would add even more to our already bloated spending. Taxes would have to be raised dramatically to pay for this, though it seems that advocates of increased government spending ignore the economic consequences of this.
Secondly, giving people money without any requirements whatsoever will mean that people will tend to choose more enjoyable and less productive jobs. Making $25,000 a year as a freelance artist wouldn’t be worth it for most people.
If the government supplemented your income and boosted it to $37,000, though, many artistically inclined people would leave more productive work and take on careers as artists, musicians and other fun but not very productive jobs. This, of course, would mean that everyone still in high-wage productive positions would have an even more of their income taken to pay for their artistic colleagues.
I am against the idea of universal basic income, but I would encourage everyone to look into the practical consequences, benefits and economic costs for themselves. This is a complicated issue and it takes more than 345 words to address it.
