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But remember, living off the dole also means not contributing anything back to society. These people could be doing something of value, but are incentivized not

• learc83 11y ago
  It's not really quite that simple though. You have to look at a UBI in comparison to our current system. How many more people will quit their jobs instead of working if we replace our current system with a UBI? Small scale preliminary studies seem to indicate not that many. >But remember, living off the dole also means not contributing anything back to society. These people could be doing something of value, but are incentivized not to. That's not true at all unless you think people on welfare and disability are incapable of contributing anything back to society. Lets say we have a single parent who can't afford day care. He parks his kids in front of the TV, or pawns them off on inattentive relatives, so he can go to McDonald's 30 hours a week and make $8 an hour. I think that he would contribute more to society in the long term by staying home and raising his kids than he does making minimum wage at McDonald's. Then we look at the economic upsides to a UBI. It is likely that a UBI will reduce crime. It will also likely encourage more entrepreneurial risk taking. And like in my previous example, a UBI will allow more parents to stay home and spend time with their children, potentially allowing the children to earn more money in the future.