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TO me, they key problem you have to solve is: how do you avoid rent-seeking, and cost of living inflation? I'm not convinced UBI works in a free market.

by TrevorJ 10y ago

dragonwriter 10y ago
> TO me, they key problem you have to solve is: how do you avoid rent-seeking, and cost of living inflation? You avoid rent-seeking by avoiding monopolies; competitive markets prevent rent-seeking. > and cost of living inflation? Monetary policy, the same way inflation is managed now. That aside, before considering any corrective changes in monetary policy, any UBI is likely to produce some level of upward pressure on prices, but at a level where buying power is still increased for people on the lower end of the distribution receiving UBI.
- TrevorJ 10y ago
  Where has this broken down with higher education then? Costs are rising in lock step with the availability of loans. Monopolies are not the reason that prices rise according to what the market will bear.
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    For a number of reasons, higher ed supply is slow to react to increased demand (for any given student cohort; scaling out to serve different kinds of students with different demands is a slightly different story), which means you've got a low price elasticity of demand in ay least the short run. And, in fact, part of this is that largely higher education is monopolistic. Except at the very bottom tier, degrees from established institutions are not, in the market, as having equivalent substitutes when a new entrant comes into the market. The established reputation of institutions is a big part of what people are paying for.
    - TrevorJ 10y ago
      Those factors have nearly always been the case though, and do not explain the massive price inflations that have occurred in lock step with loan availability. The increases have also not been confined to top tier universities so the monopoly argument doesn't explain them.

TO me, they key problem you have to solve is: how do you avoid rent-seeking, and cost of living inflation? I'm not convinced UBI works in a free market.

by TrevorJ 10y ago

TO me, they key problem you have to solve is: how do you avoid rent-seeking, and cost of living inflation? I'm not convinced UBI works in a free market.

dragonwriter 10y ago

> TO me, they key problem you have to solve is: how do you avoid rent-seeking, and cost of living inflation? You avoid rent-seeking by avoiding monopolies; competitive markets prevent rent-seeking. > and cost of living inflation? Monetary policy, the same way inflation is managed now. That aside, before considering any corrective changes in monetary policy, any UBI is likely to produce some level of upward pressure on prices, but at a level where buying power is still increased for people on the lower end of the distribution receiving UBI.

TrevorJ 10y ago
Where has this broken down with higher education then? Costs are rising in lock step with the availability of loans. Monopolies are not the reason that prices rise according to what the market will bear.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  For a number of reasons, higher ed supply is slow to react to increased demand (for any given student cohort; scaling out to serve different kinds of students with different demands is a slightly different story), which means you've got a low price elasticity of demand in ay least the short run. And, in fact, part of this is that largely higher education is monopolistic. Except at the very bottom tier, degrees from established institutions are not, in the market, as having equivalent substitutes when a new entrant comes into the market. The established reputation of institutions is a big part of what people are paying for.
  - TrevorJ 10y ago
    Those factors have nearly always been the case though, and do not explain the massive price inflations that have occurred in lock step with loan availability. The increases have also not been confined to top tier universities so the monopoly argument doesn't explain them.