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Key Takeaways
- UBI grants regular payments regardless of employment, aiming to provide social welfare and freedom from work.
- Conservatives oppose UBI due to concerns about its impact on work incentives, high program costs, and the lack of extensive large-scale testing.
Introduction
Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a policy idea that grants a demographic with a regular payment, an income, from the government. This payment is provided regardless of working status. The purpose of UBI is as a type of social welfare. UBI comes in different forms, but generally speaking it is intended to allow citizens to live whatever life they want without having to work. Moreover, UBI is considered by some a theoretically more effective form of social welfare because it allows receivers to spend the money in whatever fashion they want as opposed to food stamps which can only be spent on food.
Conservative perspective
Although UBI allows for individuals to spend government welfare in a way that should benefit them most, conservatives are highly skeptical of UBI for three main reasons. First, UBI does not incentivize work and further incentivizes government reliance. Second, UBI programs are extremely expensive. Third, UBI has not been tried and tested anywhere on a big scale.
- [1] Wright, Angela. 2020. “A bold Conservative platform would include universal basic income.” Plicy Options Politiques. September 1. https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/september-2020/a-bold-conservative-platform-would-include-universal-basic-income/.
- [2] Stephens, Michael. 2020. “A conservative look at universal basic income.” The Gainesville Sun. October 8. https://www.gainesville.com/story/opinion/2020/10/08/guest-columnist-conservative-look-universal-basic-income/3594284001/.
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