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The one thing that I never actually see any of the people who tout BI answer is why it won't just cause an increase in the price of low income goods. Why won't

The one thing that I never actually see any of the people who tout BI answer is why it won't just cause an increase in the price of low income goods. Why won't laundry detergent just cost x% more money, etc. I think that the effective spending power low income individuals have under BI would be practically around the same that they had pre-BI if it's used a supplement to our current programs, and lower if BI is used to replace current programs...

dragonwriter 10y ago
> The one thing that I never actually see any of the people who tout BI answer is why it won't just cause an increase in the price of low income goods. It won't just cause that because of the way supply and demand curves for real goods tend to work. It will definitely cause an increase in the market-clearing price of many goods demanded at the low end of the income scale (because of how demand curves are shaped, and the influx of cash), which will increase the quantity supplied of those goods in most cases (because of how supply curves are shaped), resulting in people who are net beneficiaries (after considering where the funding comes from) affording more total goods, even though they are also paying higher prices for each unit of goods.
- nostrebored 10y ago
  And things that lag with an increase in demand? Housing, etc.? I don't doubt that it will have some benefit towards the TPP of low-income consumers in the long term -- I do doubt that in the model of replacement of current welfare systems that this is an effective approach, and I doubt that it will be effective in the short term as housing prices will skyrocket. The long term effects of the latter would be interesting if the short term shockwaves caused the policy to be repealed.
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    > And things that lag with an increase in demand? Housing, etc.? The degree to which housing lags is a function of unrelated (to the benefit structure) aspects of public policy (particularly, local zoning and planning processes.) Places where the low-end housing markets are unresponsive because of these types of policies will remain problematic for the same reason under a UBI. But avoiding major disruptions is one of the reasons I think a gradual ramp up of UBI and phasing out other benefit programs by just counting UBI in income when determining eligibility is, even though it defers the administrative cost savings of UBI, the best way to move to it.
    - nostrebored 10y ago
      I think that a delayed implementation is one of the most reasonable things that I've heard regarding UBI! Thanks for the input, some food for thought.
fineIllregister 10y ago
>Why won't laundry detergent just cost x% more money, etc. Because when a company raises prices on laundry detergent, they will lose business to their competitors. Colluding in that market seems difficult.

dragonwriter 10y ago

> The one thing that I never actually see any of the people who tout BI answer is why it won't just cause an increase in the price of low income goods. It won't just cause that because of the way supply and demand curves for real goods tend to work. It will definitely cause an increase in the market-clearing price of many goods demanded at the low end of the income scale (because of how demand curves are shaped, and the influx of cash), which will increase the quantity supplied of those goods in most cases (because of how supply curves are shaped), resulting in people who are net beneficiaries (after considering where the funding comes from) affording more total goods, even though they are also paying higher prices for each unit of goods.

nostrebored 10y ago
And things that lag with an increase in demand? Housing, etc.? I don't doubt that it will have some benefit towards the TPP of low-income consumers in the long term -- I do doubt that in the model of replacement of current welfare systems that this is an effective approach, and I doubt that it will be effective in the short term as housing prices will skyrocket. The long term effects of the latter would be interesting if the short term shockwaves caused the policy to be repealed.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > And things that lag with an increase in demand? Housing, etc.? The degree to which housing lags is a function of unrelated (to the benefit structure) aspects of public policy (particularly, local zoning and planning processes.) Places where the low-end housing markets are unresponsive because of these types of policies will remain problematic for the same reason under a UBI. But avoiding major disruptions is one of the reasons I think a gradual ramp up of UBI and phasing out other benefit programs by just counting UBI in income when determining eligibility is, even though it defers the administrative cost savings of UBI, the best way to move to it.
  - nostrebored 10y ago
    I think that a delayed implementation is one of the most reasonable things that I've heard regarding UBI! Thanks for the input, some food for thought.

fineIllregister 10y ago

>Why won't laundry detergent just cost x% more money, etc. Because when a company raises prices on laundry detergent, they will lose business to their competitors. Colluding in that market seems difficult.