Why Politics Fails by Ben Ansell

Author:Ben Ansell [Ansell, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2023-05-23T00:00:00+00:00

12. Escaping the Solidarity Trap

Three letters have captured the imagination of reformers over the past decade – UBI. Universal Basic Income has brought together an unlikely coalition of supporters: from anti-poverty activists on the political left to Silicon Valley heavyweights on the libertarian right. And it’s been experimented with across an incredible variety of geographic locations: from Oakland to Finland, Spain to Sierra Leone. It has been proposed as a solution to a litany of twenty-first-century problems: from bouncing back after COVID-19 to the replacement of workers with robots. Is UBI a miracle drug? Can it help us escape the solidarity trap?

We need to start with the abbreviation because UBI has the merit, rare among policies, of telling you what it actually is. Let’s go in reverse because it’s easiest to understand that way. The I (for Income) means the UBI is a cash transfer. That distinguishes it from other types of solidarity such as healthcare, food stamps and education, which are given in kind rather than in cash. Cash is easy for the government to distribute. You don’t have to worry about the quality of the service provided because cash is cash.

Cash is also fungible: you can split it up and spend it on different things. There are no restrictions on what you can spend your UBI on. If you want to spend it all on fast food and alcohol, good for you. There’s nothing, except the criminal justice system, stopping you from spending your UBI on illegal drugs. Of course, there’s nothing, except perhaps the wisdom of age, preventing you from spending your state pension similarly. UBI is agnostic about how it’s spent – for good or for ill.

The B (for Basic) means the UBI provides a baseline level of cash. It won’t be enough for most people to live on. But everyone gets the same amount. That means there is no need for the government to try and figure out who deserves what. Everyone gets the same, regardless of need, merit or effort. But UBI also preserves existing inequalities. People who earned more will still earn more, plus the UBI and minus the taxes they pay. Since the amount is ‘basic’, it will have almost no impact for the very rich. For the very poor – they stay poorer than everyone else but now they have a chunk of cash to fall back on.

Finally, and most simply, the U (for Universal) means this is a benefit that every citizen in the country receives. There are no conditions to receiving a UBI. UBI is agnostic both in terms of how it is spent and how recipients behave. UBI proposals sometimes differ by whether they include children. Some proposals give a grant of money at eighteen rather than an annual flow of income. But a pure UBI goes to individuals not households (though presumably money for children is received by their parents, otherwise Fortnite will end up being 10 per cent of the economy). ‘Citizen’ does provide a restrictive element.

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