Leftism

Yup I died because you said it, so thanks for that.

To be clear, I have no issue with most people working while others do not and live off the system. I think most people will still want to do that something.

UBI isn't going to do that.

You can point to a handful of small scale studies that show more money works, and yes, on a small scale that is exactly what you'd expect to happen.

This does not work when everyone has that same income. It's not a matter of 99% of people making smart choices, because I concede that the vast majority of people with sudden access to additional income would spend it wisely.

The issues are twofold.

A) when the people who've made it their career to suck every penny out of every possible person know that there are suddenly more pennies to be had, they're going to raise prices. It's frankly foolish and shortsighted to expect prices to remain the same or only raise a little. This issue is not raised with small scale experiments. So regardless of their obvious success, they're not telling the whole story.

2). UBI does absolutely nothing to address the problems it's actually trying to solve. All it does is print a check every month as a bandaid for some serious problems that will certainly persist. You can't fix housing without building housing. Individual healthcare will still be tied to your job. College education will be prohibitively expensive and require staffing a lifetime of debt, and we'll still throw away an obscene amount of food, and people will still go hungry. The only thing that will probably get better is more children will have a secure diet.

And none of that assumes prices would inflate the way they absolutely will. Because even if UBI happened, the people who want all the money the working class has aren't suddenly going to think it's ok to leave dollars unspoken for.

The cost of college will steadily increase by about the amount kids are expected to have been able to save by the time they get there. Rent prices will go up to accommodate the new found freedom of spending. And that's the stuff you have a choice on. You think Comcast will see people with so many extra dollars a month and think "well our customers don't have another option but we'll let them keep all that money?"

UBI is just a ticket to absolute dependency on a government check for 99% of Americans, and less financial freedom.

Address the actual problems, don't just slap a half baked bandaid on it

A strike can last much longer if workers are not worried about their bread and roof.

Even without organization, a secure worker can bargain harder for higher wages and better conditions.

Even a UBI specifically for food- food stamps for all- would make a massive change and improve millions of lives.

In principle, and even in it's intended general practical application, I agree with you.

But in America, I can see both parties getting on board with a UBI, only because they'll use it to gut all other social welfare programs.

Need healthcare? UBI

Hungry? UBI

UBI can't pay for both at once? Tough shit. We abolished EBT and Medicare to pay for UBI.

You can't simply give people money without causing a devaluation in said money.

The government surely can.

The government has the power to levy taxes.

The government has comprehensive powers for regulating the value of currency, through control over the money supply.

At any rate, the government printing money for workers cannot possibility be worse for workers than the government printing money for businesses, as it is doing now.

I suppose, though, you might take comfort in how inflation now is being so effectively prevented, instead of causing needless human suffering.