“Universal basic income usually covers people’s basic needs but we want to see what effect this unconditional lump sum has on people’s mental and physical health, whether they choose to work or not,” says Will Stronge, the director of research at the thinktank Autonomy, which is backing the plan.
Until they start paying an entire region with UBI money, it’s not a useful trial for anyone wanting actual UBI. Giving 30 people passive income is not the same thing as giving an economic area a passive income. I want UBI to work, but I don’t think it can scale up. We won’t know until we try, so I want to see a trial where 5 or 6 counties get UBI, to see what the societal level effects will be. We already know the individual effects are positive.
Additionally, full-scale UBI would result in a proportional adjustment of wages. These small studies are basically just giving people extra cash. Of course they’ll be successful!
Yeah that was my immediate thought “my employer will just reduce my wages by £1600”. I guess at least that £1600 is guaranteed which makes moving jobs and even careers easier.
My hope would be that if Company X decides to reduce wages by £1600 then competitor Company Y can poach X’s talent by not reducing wages.