A Universal Basic Income Would Do Wonders For The U.S. Economy

It’s not a giveaway; it’s a permanent economic stimulus.

By Ben Schiller

“If you make benefits not conditional on having a job, that increases workers’ bargaining power.”

Introducing a universal basic income (UBI) would give a huge jolt to the U.S. economy, according to a new analysis, one of the first to consider the wider effects of giving everyone in the United States a regular, unconditional cash payment to meet their everyday needs.

UBI has been winning a lot of supporters recently, notably among tech figures like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. It is often touted as a solution to technological unemployment, though there are plenty of other rationales, including a desire to streamline government and to give individuals more autonomy over how they spend their money.

The new analysis, from the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, considers three main scenarios: paying every adult $1,000 a month, paying all adults $500 a month, and paying $250 a month just to kids (a child allowance). In all cases–including different ways of paying for an UBI–the impact would be positive, economically speaking, the analysis says. If kids received $250 per month, GDP would grow 0.79% per year over an eight-year period; $1,000 for all adults would expand the economy by a whopping 12.56% over the same time frame. That would mean at least $2…