Basic Income: Short and Sweet Answers for Skeptics

Hi there Basic Income Skeptic!

First things first: Are you a trained, skilled economist?

Be honest now. Did you spend years seriously studying the subject, — perhaps at school, college, university and beyond — starting with the really basic stuff, such as opportunity cost, and working your way up gradually to being able to understand much more complicated macro-economic issues?

You didn’t? Well, don’t worry. That’s fine. You don’t have to be able to evaluate proposed economic policies all by yourself. There are some very friendly and helpful skilled economists around to do that for you. I just wanted to establish where we’re starting from.

Oh, wait! You’re not one of those ‘mystics’ off of Facebook, are you? The ones who reckon they’ve somehow acquired (perhaps through magic!) a near-perfect understanding of economics, despite having next to no education or training in the subject?

You’re not? Well, thank goodness for that, because those guys really are a few olives short of a pizza, if you ask me.

OK then. Down to business. Some questions and straightforward answers:

Q) Will Basic Income have many real and substantial benefits?