3 ms·

I am worried that this study will just confirm the local benefits of BI (which have already been pretty well documented, e.g. Mincome) without addressing the un

I am worried that this study will just confirm the local benefits of BI (which have already been pretty well documented, e.g. Mincome) without addressing the unanswered questions regarding BI. The real unanswered questions mostly revolve around large scale changes to the economy, not localized improvements. Some questions I really want to see answered are: - Will UBI create large price inflation for basic goods (which is what traditionally happens when you give everyone free money)? - If so, do we think that this will still be net beneficial for alleviating poverty? Often price inflation is regressive since it hits commodities harder than something scarcity priced. - I would also like to ask this question slightly differently: What happens if we were to give everyone the equivalent of 6 months of unskilled labor each year? That's more or less what traditional UBI proposes, and phrased that way who is going to provide the labor (or goods/services)? Money can be thought of (roughly) as debt owed to you by society. When you think about it that way, doing localized BI seems like an easy win. Doing universal BI seems like a potential catastrophe. Does this study address the latter? (Edit: my awful spelling)

ffwd 10y ago
Regarding inflation of prices - if feeding everyone leads to inflation of prices then in principle we can't feed everyone. That says more about resources than it does BI, if I understand you correctly. I think if we were to do this, we would need the capital and infrastructure to handle the increased demand, maybe outside the traditional economic system so that prices didn't increase so much.
- chris_va 10y ago
  I think you misunderstand my concern. Going from a system where everyone needs to generate $20k of economic value "to eat" (yes, oversimplification of benefits, but bear with me) to one in which no one needs to generate economic value may have some macro scale inflation issues. Those are the issues a study of UBI needs to cover.

ffwd 10y ago

Regarding inflation of prices - if feeding everyone leads to inflation of prices then in principle we can't feed everyone. That says more about resources than it does BI, if I understand you correctly. I think if we were to do this, we would need the capital and infrastructure to handle the increased demand, maybe outside the traditional economic system so that prices didn't increase so much.

chris_va 10y ago
I think you misunderstand my concern. Going from a system where everyone needs to generate $20k of economic value "to eat" (yes, oversimplification of benefits, but bear with me) to one in which no one needs to generate economic value may have some macro scale inflation issues. Those are the issues a study of UBI needs to cover.