Some politicians and activists want to give away money for “free.”
They call it Universal Basic Income (UBI). That is, give everyone cash with no strings attached.
Comedian Dave Chappelle thinks UBI would “help my community almost instantly.”
In my new video, UBI activist Conrad Shaw agrees: “It would effectively eliminate extreme poverty immediately.”
He said UBI would help people “start businesses, repair their homes and invest in sustainable gardens.”
Well, “sustainable gardens” may be nice, but someone still has to create something. And it takes effort, and it’s often difficult work.
When I was younger, if I didn’t have to work to support myself, I wouldn’t have worked as hard to overcome my fears, stuttering, and reluctance to speak in public. I wouldn’t have succeeded. You may have spent most of the day in bed.
But Shaw disagrees. “I can’t believe it,” he says. “No one actually wants to do that… People find their passion not just because they need to make money.”
We could debate this all day long. It would be great if someone conducted a serious test of UBI and gave a lot of money to a lot of people for, say, three years. Will people still work? Improve their lives? What about their family life?
It turns out that the man behind ChatGPT, Sam Altman, helped create such a test. In his large-scale study, he gave 1,000 low-income people $1,000 a month for three years without strings attached. what happened?
Not the greatness promised. After three years of receiving $1,000 a month, UBI recipients were actually a little more in debt than before.
why? Because they have less time to work. So did their partners.
Although some recipients talked about starting a business, very few actually tried starting a business. Most of those who said they had actually started a business waited until the third year of the survey, when they were nearing the end of their free money.
I’m not surprised. When you give people free money, you disincentivize them from working. Incentives are important.
“We’re confusing the concepts of work and work,” Shaw argues.
It’s true that people do meaningful work outside of work. But being paid to do a job means you’re worth it to someone.
“How much money are you worth to the child you’re raising?” Shaw replies. “Who is your sick parent that you are caring for?”
a lot. “But it doesn’t mention that other people have to work to pay for it.”
Shaw replies, “We pay taxes for things that are better for our people, for general welfare. That’s…what we do as a country.”
“But that’s double that!” I point out. “We already spend almost $2 trillion on welfare programs. Want to add more to that?”
No, says Shaw, UBI should “replace existing welfare programs.”
That’s an interesting idea.
“Abolish unemployment insurance, food stamps, welfare, and all the other crazy policies, and just have a modest universal basic income,” says Jeffrey Miron, a Harvard economist. . ”
But that will never happen. Every time someone tries to cut government programs, people panic. Imagine trying to cut all welfare.
“The chances of that happening politically are probably zero,” Miron said.
Progressives want to add UBI to existing programs.
“Adding more programs is insane!” says Miron. “Entire countries will collapse. The poor will bear the brunt. The rich will migrate to other countries… hide their assets. We will have a debt crisis like no one has ever seen before. You will be killed.”
We are already in a debt crisis like no one has ever seen before.
Let’s not make things worse with UBI.
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