Thursday, July 25, 2024

But Is It, Though?

Bad News for Universal Basic Income, that is. Eric Boehm at Reason:

The largest study into the real-world consequences of giving people an extra $1,000 per month, with no strings attached, has found that those individuals generally worked less, earned less, and engaged in more leisure time activities.

I'm against UBI for many reasons (the top three being that I oppose government "redistribution of wealth" in general, expect that instead of it being "universal" disfavored groups would get cut out, and expect that the threat of getting cut out would constitute a massively successful weapon for suppressing dissent).

But if we're moving toward Fully Automated Luxury Communism or whatever you want to call it, it seems to me that this is exactly what the advocates of same would want to see: People being willing to 1) accept less for 2) working less while 3) falling into "bread and circuses" lethargy/apathy. So they might well consider this study good news.

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