Universal Basic Income is the Dumbest Idea I’ve Ever Heard

3. UBI will reduce your income.

With a guaranteed income, the market value of labor decreases. Everyone’s secondary income (besides the UBI) will decrease in nominal terms. In other words, your job will pay less. On top of this, the value of the dollar will have decreased in real terms (inflation.) Counter-intuitive as it may seem, economics proves that everyone would be considerably poorer with UBI. They’ll make less money, and what they do make will be worth less.

4. UBI will disincentivize work, period. It is inherently communist.

“What would you do if your income were taken care of?” This is the classic pitch for communism, by communists that I have heard multiple times personally. “Capitalism leaves no time for leisure and hobbies,” they say. “You shouldn’t have to work to live.” As I laid out in #2, work is positively correlated with progress. Work does not happen without reward. What happens when you don’t need that reward? Take a quote from the grandson of one of the wealthiest American families ever: the Vanderbilts. “Inherited wealth is a real handicap to happiness. It is as certain a death to ambition as cocaine is to morality,” said William K Vanderbilt. The family built the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, just to give you an idea of the expanse of their wealth that took only a few generations to spend. My point is not that inherited wealth should be disallowed (who do you think I am, the government?) The truth is that comparatively, unearned money is hardly precious to the individual who did not earn it, and that it dis-incentivizes work (since work is neither necessary, nor worth the effort.)