Precisely. The article cites one economist who opposes BI for this very reason: ROBERT GORDON: As far as a guaranteed minimum income, I’m not in favor of that.

Precisely. The article cites one economist who opposes BI for this very reason: ROBERT GORDON: As far as a guaranteed minimum income, I’m not in favor of that. I’m in favor of a modest increase in the minimum wage, and a substantial increase in the earned-income tax credit, which encourages low-income people to work. DUBNER: Why would you not be in favor of the minimum guaranteed income? GORDON: There’s too much of an incentive, if you guarantee income, to replace work. And if you provide a guaranteed minimum income to everybody, then those with low skills will drop out of the labor force and will no longer work. So I think it’s a matter of incentives. A guaranteed minimum income would put a very high implicit marginal tax rate on going to work, for those with relatively low skills.