Universal Basic Income Won’t Work
How would you react if all of a sudden you started receiving $800-1000 check every month? Would you keep your job so that you could still make money to extend what you now have, or would you decide that you now have no reason to work anymore and resign from the job that you had. With the Universal Basic Income(UBI) the government is trying to put in place either option will be open but that doesn’t mean that the UBI will be enough to cover all the needed costs. Universal Basic income is a cash payment given monthly by the government to all citizens, reguardless of employment statis or salary. Universal basic income is not a good way to deal with large scale unemployment because it will lead to a higher inequality, it undermines social cohesion, and it is financially irresponsible. Many people believe that UBI will lower poverty count, but I don’t believe that is the case. I think that UBI would take away from existing anti poverty measures that include: medical aid, food stamps, and child assistance, and only give those in poverty a lump sum that won’t be enough to cover life expenses. The biggest problem with UBI when it comes to poverty is that everyone
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It would redefine relationships as we know them now, and it would change a centuries old view of government. Ian Goldin, a professor of globalization and development at the university of oxford expands on the importance of work and its connection to social skills when he claims that “Individuals gain not only income, but meaning, status, skills, networks and friendships through work. Delinking income and work, while rewarding people for staying at home, is what lies behind social decay”(Financial Times). This only goes to show that if UBI is implemented and people stop working not only will they lose skills they worked hard for, but they will also lose social skills because most socialization occurs while