More on universal basic income

 We had a bit of a discussion here a few days ago about this idea, which is the most straightforward form of wealth redistribution. What if the government just gives everybody money every month? There are permutations of this. It could be enough to live on, or just a supplementary amount. It could have some strings attached. For example, in some low income countries it comes with a requirement that children attend school. But let ' s simplify the discussion and just say everybody gets a check that at least constitutes a poverty level income. Sigal Samuel at Voxdiscusses an experiment that is about to get underway in Germany, in which 120 people will get a check worth $1,430 every month for three years. That ' s probably not long enough to learn much about the ultimate effects on the life course, unless they are clearly positive, e.g. people get more schooling, actually have more career success, their children do better in school, that sort of thing. But if you ' re worried that it is a disincentive to work, you might not be convinced because people probably aren ' t going to quit their jobs knowing that the money will go away in three years. Nevertheless this gives Samuel an occasion to talk about other experiments along these lines, including some longer term programs, and generally results seem quite positive. People are happier, they go to school more, they even feel more motivated at work. A major problem with means tested programs is that they do indeed cr...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs