I used to be a big proponent of UBI, I really believed it had the potential to solve a broad range of problems, but after the pandemic I have to say I think I was completely wrong, perhaps I projected my own "nature" on to other people. I think now that I am an outlier, and probably a lot of people who supported it are outliers as well, while a lot of people who opposed it are just regular people who understand just how lazy regular people are. I am still in shock at how many of my friends intentionally lost their (cushy, white collar, work 4 hours a day from home) jobs and went on unemployment, spent the summer watching sports, smoking weed, and playing games, how many people I knew did really shady stuff to get PPP money to fund luxury purchases, etc. (And all the while complaining about "the billionaires" and how unfair the system was.)
I'll say at least that from where we are now we just had by far the greatest natural experiment we could ever hope for and UBI stands invalidated. Those who still want to push it have a much greater burden of proof, and I'm a bit nervous about UBI programs getting rolled out without proper validation and where that will take us.
I'll say at least that from where we are now we just had by far the greatest natural experiment we could ever hope for and UBI stands invalidated. Those who still want to push it have a much greater burden of proof, and I'm a bit nervous about UBI programs getting rolled out without proper validation and where that will take us.