Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathgod
Maybe UBI can be some sort of credit system that can only be spent in certain ways (rather than just sending out cash).
Something to consider: how are drug lords going to recruit dealers if everyone has access to a UBI? Why would people choose a life of crime if they have a better alternative directly at their fingertips?
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You can have the life of crime AND the better alternative. In fact it being a tax less cash job that provides a small side income but not a real 9-5 job probably has a certain attractiveness in a UBI world. You need such a small amount of more money to provide a large increase in standard of living when all of your needs are paid for. 100% of income goes to wants.
So making small amounts of money selling drugs seems like a reasonable hobby. I think the answer is legalize, tax, treat and enforce. This becomes even more important when you have a UBI.
I think that caveats, claw backs, means testing, requiring people to work all work significantly against the main benefit of UBI. It’s cheap to administer and always there. If you get rid of those factors you might as well target need instead.
The entire concept of UBI is people are better at spending their money then the government is on what they need now so it is more efficient to indiscriminately fund people rather than for the government to fund programs to help people.
In general I agree with the principle of UBI that access to meeting the basic needs to live should be provided by the state. However the Universal nature of UBI and human nature will lead to perverse incentives causing the system to collapse.
Like every 50 year engineer retiring and spending their lives tinkering instead of developing modern power grids and extracting energy from the earth.