UBI Is the Wrong Answer to the Right Problem

This is terrific work. Thank you for writing and sharing it. It captures the unease I have felt about UBI. It describes the feeling of regret I get about the state of public works. I'm sure I'm going to keep coming back to this.

Poor understanding of UBI. It's a floor. A foundation. All income is earned on top of it. It does nothing to discourage work, unlike welfare that disappears with work. UBI is activating. It is empowering. People fund the work that's best for them, paid or unpaid. They start their own business. They go to school to learn something. They pursue volunteer work and caring for others.

Over and over again, the evidence shows that UBI is activating not demotivating. No one wants to do nothing. People want to feel like they are contributing to society in some way. And people definitely want to earn as much as they can to spend what they want to spend.

UBI is not the only thing we need to do. It is just a key thing we need to do because it makes other things easier to do. It's the bottom of Maslow's pyramid. It's money to buy boots with straps. It reduces poverty, insecurity, and inequality. That leads to less crime, better health, and more productivity. The spending of UBI creates jobs. It grows the economy due to people with lower incomes spending it mostly locally on local goods and services.

If you don't support UBI, you either don't understand it, refuse to study the mountain of evidence, or simply distrust others and/or want to control them.

UBI is the power to say no. It is power to the People. It is a redistribution of power. People will use that power in so many good ways you can't imagine and aren't giving them credit for.

UBI is the correct answer. It is not the only answer. But it is a very important one.

This is a knocking down a strawman, it’s not supposed to provide a good understanding of UBI but rather scare you that you’re going to be lonely, lazy, and helpless on it. A more nuanced article would provide counterpoints, however this is just promoting the authors opinion

Given the tone of the article, especially its second chapter, I am surprised not to read “Arbeit macht frei” (work sets you free)

Interestingly, this phrase associated with concentration camps, initially was used in programs implemented to combat mass unemployment in Germany.