Ancillary #4: The Evolution of My Perspective on UBI
My thoughts on UBI.
Since the rise of Andrew Yang and his core belief that every American citizen should be provided with a government subsidized universal basic income (or UBI), I have found myself to be deeply interested in the topic. Though the idea seemed insane at first glance (which is in part why I was initially interested in it), the core belief that taking a small portion of the economic gains acquired by a handful of tech companies as a result of our increasingly automated and digitized society, and feeding it back into the bottom of society as a means of creating a “trickle up” economy — all to support the greater good humanity, sounded reasonably logical and fair to me.
However, some of the primary concerns and counterarguments to the idea of UBI have made me question how rational my belief in it all really was. In reading articles about the effect it may have on social work habits, inflation, decreased governmental power during recessions, and some others, I certainly question the viability of UBI more-so now than I have before.
I am still unsure of my position, and further, I do not feel as though an overarching statement on whether UBI is good or bad can really be made insofar as an opinion on either side is just one huge speculation… or so I currently think.
And so my research continues!