Universal Basic Income

Universal basic income (UBI) is a government program in which every adult citizen receives a set amount of money on a regular basis. The goals of a basic income system are to alleviate poverty and replace other need-based social programs that potentially require greater bureaucratic involvement.

This sounds like a good Idea however UBI is a flawed idea, not least because it would be prohibitively expensive unless accompanied by deep cuts to the rest of the safety net. In the U.S. (population: 327 million), a UBI of just $1,000 per month would cost around $4 trillion per year, which is close to the entire federal budget in 2018.

Who will pay for UBI?

UBI is a prospective model of social security that's gaining traction as a possible solution to growing wealth inequality and job instability. It proposes that the government provides every citizen with a lump sum of income every year, no strings attached, paid to every person regardless of whether or not they work.

There appears to be a major problem with UBI:

UBI has the potential to directly decrease the growth of the US economy, namely GDP growth, through reductions to labor force participation.

With GDP shrinking, tax revenues would fall. This would in turn mean fewer resources to help the disadvantaged or to invest in the future, resulting in lower overall prosperity.

Perhaps this is a good idea?:

UBI would allow care-workers to support themselves, encouraging care work within the home and relieving pressure on public services that provide care to the sick and elderly. The economic growth of high-income countries is making the rich richer, but having very little effect on the working classes

Currently, no country has a UBI in place, although there have been (and still are) several small-scale pilots and a few larger-scale experiences. Only two countries—Mongolia and the Islamic Republic of Iran—had a national UBI in place for a short period of time.

Has UBI ever worked?

The study compared the employment and well-being of basic income recipients against a control group of 173,000 people who were on unemployment benefits. Between November 2017 and October 2018, people on basic income worked an average of 78 days, which was six days more than those on unemployment benefits. So how is that working for us?

To it seems you may have to give up other benefits that will surely be missed.

We at Tommy’s Team work actively to make the community as well as the society around us to be a better place to live in, and we also encourage many people to send us their ideas and suggestions so that we can improve society at large, for everyone concerned. And yes, this also includes you.