Universal basic income to be trialled

JonRGV250

JonRGV250

JonRGV250

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www.theguardian.com

Universal basic income of £1,600 a month to be trialled in two places in England

Scheme to run for two years and participants will be monitored to see what effect it has on mental and physical health
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

www.dailymail.co.uk

Sit around, do nothing... and get paid £1,600 a month!

Over a period of two years, they will receive the monthly lump sum without any conditions while researchers monitor what effects the cash has on their lives.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Universal basic income: Plans drawn up for £1,600 a month trial in England

Thirty people would get a monthly lump sum for two years, under a think tank's scheme in England.
www.bbc.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

Editorial: Universal basic income may not be popular but it could soon be necessary

Editorial: It is a valuable experiment and a glimpse into the future
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk
 
I think the risk the UBI introduces is making a mockery of the lower paid jobs in society. I.e. You can sit at home all day and earn 20k a year versus someone who goes to stack shelves for 21k a year - you know what most people will choose.

Yes I know the obvious answer is to pay these jobs more, but that just won't happen in a capitalist society.

I'd be more for a "top-up" of wages. For example if the UBI was set at 25k a year then the shop worker earning 21k would get an additional 4k. At least this way it would still encourage people to be in work, and provide them with a little bit more income.
 
Jimbeam3678 said:
What would the effect be?
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Worth of currency is derived from economic output, if you print more money to give everyone £1600, the money will be devalued meaning after the initial chaos, everything will end up the same.

The poorer people will be worse off because the income is paid to everyone equally, compared to how benefits work now.

People who save in cash would also have big issues due to the inflation, which is a huge amount of peoples savings.
 
Semple said:
I think the risk the UBI introduces is making a mockery of the lower paid jobs in society. I.e. You can sit at home all day and earn 20k a year versus someone who goes to stack shelves for 21k a year - you know what most people will choose.

Yes I know the obvious answer is to pay these jobs more, but that just won't happen in a capitalist society.

I'd be more for a "top-up" of wages. For example if the UBI was set at 25k a year then the shop worker earning 21k would get an additional 4k. At least this way it would still encourage people to be in work, and provide them with a little bit more income.
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why would stacking shelves only earn you 1k a year?

or.do you misunderstand UBI? You still earn a UBI whether you work or not, so the same motivation is there to earn more, but it gives you the flexibility to pull back from work yo focus on health, family, education or charity work, and removes the risks of loosing jobs and the downward spiral of unemployment. It also puts a big incentive on employers to make the work-life balance acceptable and create a work environment where people are excited to help the employer work towards their vision. It also necessitates a much higher base salary
 
platinum87 said:
Worth of currency is derived from economic output, if you print more money to give everyone £1600, the money will be devalued meaning after the initial chaos, everything will end up the same.

The poorer people will be worse off because the income is paid to everyone equally, compared to how benefits work now.

People who save in cash would also have big issues due to the inflation, which is a huge amount of peoples savings.
Click to expand...


You don't necessarily print the money though. You fund UBI through much higher taxation
 
It'll be interesting to see the outcome, iirc some countries (Nordic?) have already done this. The unemployed will have less incentive for work and a proportion of them will have more money for weed, gambling, and cigarettes.
 
tyke_ said:
It'll be interesting to see the outcome, iirc some countries (Nordic?) have already done this. The unemployed will have less incentive for work and a proportion of them will have more money for weed, gambling, and cigarettes.
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Yeah I'll need a citation for that please because that's certainly not what I remember from the results.
 
adidan said:
Yeah I'll need a citation for that please because that's certainly not what I remember from the results.
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I said a proportion, not everyone. I say this because i grew up on a rough council estate and know what some of the inhabitants are like.
 
Granted, I only read the BBC article, but it's not clear at all about what the plan is. If rolled out, everyone would get £1,600 a month and you continue to work to earn more. Are other benefits still given to some? Or is this just for unemployed? What if you earn less than £1,600 a month? As said, why would you then work?
 
AndyCr15 said:
Granted, I only read the BBC article, but it's not clear at all about what the plan is. If rolled out, everyone would get £1,600 a month and you continue to work to earn more. Are other benefits still given to some? Or is this just for unemployed? What if you earn less than £1,600 a month? As said, why would you then work?
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Because you get UBI regardless, whatever you earn from working would be 'extra'.
 
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tyke_ said:
I said a proportion, not everyone. I say this because i grew up on a rough council estate and know what some of the inhabitants are like.
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Oh I don't question your experience.

I'm sure it's possible some won't be incentivised to work, certainly not so if the jobs aren't there anyway.

Hard to say until I dig out the results as what I remember was that some were willing to then take lower paid jobs with the financial stability in place and levels of well being improved.
 
It’s a bit like working for the council then :D , free money for doing nothing. Not sure what they will observe other than them either going on holiday , new car , tv or just bank the money . It’s not that there going to give up work given how short the trial is ?

Anyhow absolute pipe dream . Never going happen in our or our children’s lifetime.

If it should , no state pension, no nhs and you think inflation is bad now.
 
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AndyCr15 said:
Granted, I only read the BBC article, but it's not clear at all about what the plan is. If rolled out, everyone would get £1,600 a month and you continue to work to earn more. Are other benefits still given to some? Or is this just for unemployed? What if you earn less than £1,600 a month? As said, why would you then work?
Click to expand...

You get the £1600 a month regardless if you work or not. If you want to have more than £19.2k a year then you can get a full time minimum wage job and still end up having a decent standard of living on close to £40k
 
adidan said:
Oh I don't question your experience.

I'm sure it's possible some won't be incentivised to work, certainly not so if the jobs aren't there anyway.

Hard to say until I dig out the results as what I remember was that some were willing to then take lower paid jobs with the financial stability in place and levels of well being improved.
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I think UBI for most people might be better, or atleast to include those on lower incomes. Working in a dead end job for a pittance is soul destroying, a UBI could help here.
 
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