Bill Trowbridge I don't think that it's true that UBI's are always...

January 15, 2023 at 1:10 AM  ·  Comment — Archer T. Ships replied to Bill Trowbridge's comment.  ·  View on Facebook  ·  Markdown source

Bill Trowbridge I don't think that it's true that UBI's are always put to good use. For example, the history of the island of Nauru serves as a natural experiment in basic income. Nauru is a small South Pacific island with a population of about 10 K people. For most of its history, the islanders made a subsistence living via fishing. Then, during the 1960's and 1970's, the country made vast amounts of money selling phospate rich fossilized bird poop (which is useful for making fertilizer). During that 20 year period, the per capita GDP was one of the highest in the world (~50 K/year exceeded only by Saudi Arabia). Did the citizens use the money wisely? Did they invest in their own education? Did they start businesses, and diversify their economy? Did they eat healthier? No. During this boom people stopped fishing, going to school and getting tertiary education. They started eating large amounts of imported junk food, leading to one of the world's highest rates of diabetes. They bought fancy cars, despite the fact that Nauru is only 21 square miles. When the phosphate ran out in the 1980's, they again became impoverished. Now they survive primarily on subsidies from the Australia government to operate a prison for asylum seekers. Most UBI experiments have been short-term (one year or less), and are done by proponents of UBI's. There is a well-known bias in the scientific literature of only publishing positive results. Negative results don't get published, if they're submitted for publication at all. So, even if you ignore the immorality of forcing other people to support the UBI recipient's existence, I don't believe that UBI's would work even on their proponent's own terms.