Universal Basic Income by Karl Widerquist

Author:Karl Widerquist [Widerquist, Karl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Basic Income; Universal Basic Income; Unconditional Basic Income; Freedom; Poverty; Public Policy
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2024-01-24T00:00:00+00:00

Finally, UBI supporters should be aware that they can easily fall into a trap by using experimental evidence to disprove hyperbolic criticism of UBI (such as “no one will work” and “we can’t afford it”) by reporting the “good news” that the labor supply response was “small.” This rationalistic response fails to appreciate that such statements are usually not meant literally. People who say something like “no one will work” usually mean something like, “I don’t want any government spending going to any low-income person who reduces their labor time.” For them, the labor supply response is never small enough.

Similarly, people who say “we can’t afford it” don’t usually mean that, objectively speaking, the spending required to support UBI is unsustainable; they mean that subjectively, it costs more than they think it is worth. If you don’t like a policy to begin with, it’s subjectively unaffordable at any cost.

No evidence refutes these subjective beliefs, and by trying to disprove figurative statements, UBI supporters often accept the premise that more labor from the middle and lower classes is everywhere and always a good thing. UBI is not the policy for people whose goal is to get low-income people to work as many hours as possible. The case for UBI is better built on the rejection rather than the accommodation of that belief.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.