Will Basic Income be Good for the Economy?
And what does ‘good for the economy’ actually mean, anyway?
We often hear people talking about what is or isn’t ‘good for the economy,’ without them being explicit about what that phrase actually means. What they’re usually referring to is merely whether something is good or bad for the GDP statistics that politicians and people in the media tend to obsess about.
The real economy, however, is not some abstract statistical concept. The real economy is the lives and interactions of millions upon millions of real people. Thus, the health of the economy is largely about the health and well-being of the people who live in it.
If people are doing well and we’re not destroying the environment, then we might reasonably conclude that the economy is doing well. And if people are doing badly — if their standard of living is falling — and we’re destroying the environment, then that basically means the economy is heading in the wrong direction, regardless of what official GDP statistics say. Economic growth, measured by rising GDP, is not the same as economic success. And we would be wise to always keep that in mind during any discussion about what is or isn’t ‘good for the economy.’
So, whether or not Basic Income will boost GDP is not the most important issue. Much…
