Name: 全民基本收入｜利與弊｜UBI(全民基本收入) (Universal Basic Income | Pros and Cons | UBI)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T08:16:05.000Z
Duration: 13 min 59 s
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Have you ever wondered what it would be like
to go back to the 1970s soviet country, and

return to our times with then-popular maxim:
“Down you lie or up you stand, either way

Every citizen in our country would have full-time
employment and a fixed salary regardless of

the results of their work, and regardless
of whether they would try their best or not.

But perhaps we should go even further than
that.

Let the government pay regardless of employment
status.

From then on, you would not have to worry
about your day-to-day survival.

You could spend your time on your education
and development, without sacrificing it to

You would not have to accept the first job
offer that came your way.

You would be able to choose the best one instead.

Is it a serious solution to the problems of
the modern world, or merely some socialist

Perhaps we bear witness to an impending revolution
triggered by an economic proposal gaining

in popularity among experts at the Silicon
Valley and politicians in the Nordic countries,

that is the Universal Basic Income (UBI).

Several countries have already experiment
with “free money”, while governments face

changing labor and strained welfare systems.

Let us look closer at the definition, advantages,
and disadvantages of the UBI.

It is a simple idea: Let us give a subsistence
minimum income for all citizens, making their

day-to-day strife for survival a thing of
the past.

Note that the term “subsistence minimum”
is by itself very unclear, with wildly varying

It is even referred to as the “extreme poverty
line.”

It accounts only for the needs that cannot
be postponed.

Consumption below this level leads to biological
wasting and is life threatening.

The UBI idea has been known and discussed
for decades, and it has even been practiced

The UBI itself is a regular, equal, and non-returnable
cash benefit that is received individually

by all citizens regardless of their material
and occupational situation.

Other terms synonymous with the UBI include:
state bonus, national dividend, social dividend,

citizen's dividend, citizen's wage, and
universal benefit.

The idea is that the state transfers the money
to everyone without any conditions at all.

Not only the largest or the poorest families,
immigrants, students, or single mothers pocket

You only need to breathe to get your share
of the public pie.

We have mentioned that it is not a new idea.

It was already discussed in the 1940s in Great
Britain (it was then referred to as “social

The concept was abandoned, however, in favor
of the classical welfare state ideas of conditional

Another opportunity for its implementation
resurfaced in the United States era of Nixon

There were even bills ready to be passed,
but once again they were cast-off in Congress.

Only rich in natural resources and sparsely
populated Alaska managed to implement something

Some classical liberals were interested as
well, like Milton Friedman with his “negative

Although, he envisioned it as a way to free
the nation from the burden of social spending.

There were also some recent experiments with
the UBI.

During Finland's two-year basic income trial
which ended in 2018 some Finns were getting

Some African countries as well as Canada's
Ontario made similar attempts.

The latter case is, however, off the map,
as the UBI proposal was abandoned after change

Another such program was rejected by the Swiss
people in a referendum.

The Italian government will implement basic
income as high as €780 per person and up

to €1,330 per family in April 2019, and
a trial run will be launched in Germany a

month later to check how the UBI affects some
of its citizens.

German government is currently recruiting,
expecting to select 500 volunteers for the

Notice that conditions tried in these experiments
are different than those of the real UBI.

People adapt when they are told: “We will
give you free money for a year to try it out.”

Aware that there is a time-limit for the money,
they are inclined to keep some other sources

They respond differently when they hear: "We
will give you free money indefinitely.”

It is extremely difficult to predict people's
behavior in changed conditions when we base

our knowledge solely on their declarations.

From the standpoint of philosophy of science
alone, microscale experiments fail us as a

tool of grasping most macroeconomic and macrosociological
effects such as, among others: increase in

the share of wages in GDP, increase in the
effective demand in the economy, dynamics

of private investment or economic growth,
or changes in employment rate.

These changes have a significant impact on
the individual decisions of people.

In order to observe and analyze such effects
we would need an experiment on the scale of

a whole country and lasting longer than all
previous trials.

The previous trials cannot tell us reliably
whether money paid to everyone will support

The renewed interest in the UBI is motivated
by the threat of losing livelihoods by those

who could be pushed out of the labor market
by globalization or automation.

Automation may be seen as a boogeyman used
as a pretext for the UBI.

Some fear that the development of robotics
might make human work obsolete or less needed.

The UBI advocates argue that in such case
it might be necessary to update the ways in

According to Michael Munger, transaction costs
in the economy of tomorrow will tend to zero,

Let us consider closer this worrisome prospect
that prompts us to look for other ways of

The pros
The Basic Income Europe Fanpage on Facebook

gathers more than 41 thousand enthusiasts.

Among the greatest supporters of the UBI are
Silicon Valley's technical titans like the

head of Tesla Elon Musk and the head of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg.

Ray Kurzweil, futurist and engineering director
at Google, is very hopeful about the UBI as