Inflation is pretty much the first thing that most people think about when they look into UBI for the first time. Here's a summary of some of the pro UBI argum

Inflation is pretty much the first thing that most people think about when they look into UBI for the first time. Here's a summary of some of the pro UBI arguments: Most plans would be paid for by increasing taxes on the wealthy, so it doesn't actually increase the money supply; Prices should only increase on goods that are supply constrained; We're already giving away billions of dollars in assistance in the form of SNAP (food stamps), and increases in SNAP assistance don't seem to cause food price inflation (or at least not enough to be detectable); We also already provide huge subsidies in the form of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which doesn't appear to have inflationary effects (again at least not enough to notice); The examples we have of partial basic income haven't caused large scale inflation. Alaska hasn't seen an increase in inflation since they began providing a partial basic income to all residents, and Kuwait didn't see an increase in inflation when they gave every citizen $4k in 2011. To summarize the summary, a UBI would probably cause a price increase in supply constrained goods and services, but not nearly enough to drown out the extra purchasing power provided to people with lower incomes. How this affects the middle class depends on how high we set the cutoff where you start paying more in additional taxes than you're getting in UBI, and it depends on how income inequality and velocity of money affect the middle class. Many economists think that increasing income equality will help the economy as a whole, but that's open for debate (I personally think that it will).