What are the advantages and disadvantages of universal basic income?
There are multiple perspectives when it comes to universal basic income (UBI) that come with reasonable advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages include reducing poverty, income inequality, improving physical and mental health, leading to positive job growth, and lower school dropout rates. Kenya has an ongoing UBI trial that has results that led to increased happiness and life satisfaction as well as showed to reduced stress and depression. UBI would also allow employees the financial stability to leave a job, wait until the ideal job comes along, or give them time until they rejoin the job market for mental health reasons or other live events like raising children. People will have the opportunity to live happier rather than be su=ituationally forced to take a dreadful job to pay the bills. UBI allows people to stay in school longer and participate in training to improve skills or learn a trade. An example of this is in Uganda’s UBI trial, the Youth Opportunities Program. They allowed the participants to invest in skills training as well as tools and materials, resulting in an increase of business assets by 57%, work hours by 17%, and earnings by 38%. Disadvantages include the fact that universal basic income is too expensive and it takes money from the poor and gives it to everyone, increasing poverty and depriving the poor of much-needed targeted support. In 2018, a study was done that resulted in finding the information that if a $1,000 a month stipend to every adult in the United States, then the cost is approximately $3.81 trillion per year. Considering that the United States is already over $28 trillion, can the United States afford this? Economist John Kay, Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, started a UBI at a level that can guarantee an acceptable standard of living is “impossibly expensive… Either the level of basic income is unacceptably low, or the cost of providing it is unacceptably high.” There is also the fact that in order to accomplish UBI programs, the government would have to take away focused anti-poverty programs like food stamps, medical aid, and child assistance programs. The important aspect to notice is that all of the advantages are opportunities that may or may not be taken, which means the benefit would only come if people use UBI as intended, which is extremely risky. I believe the disadvantages outweigh the advantages when you consider the risk of the advantages actually benefiting the majority of the people.
https://www.procon.org/headlines/universal-basic-income-top-3-pros-and-cons/