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What good is basic income if it does not encourage people on it to learn new things and find new sources of income or look for a job? What if basic income makes a majority of people not learn anything and just never learn from their mistakes and failures, and always have that basic income safety net to rely on even if all they do is play video games, get drunk every day, get stoned every day, abuse people every day, and just become a jerk to everyone because they have no responsibilities at all?

I don't think this basic income (while it does sound nice) has not been properly thought through. Do you have any peer reviewed sources on it that I can learn more about it? Apparently this is a 'hot issue' as my parent post was downvoted into oblivion for raising doubts about it.




"What good is basic income if it does not encourage people on it to learn new things and find new sources of income or look for a job?"

I dispute the notion that fear of significant poverty is the only thing that can motivate people to do such things (or the best way to do it).

"What if basic income makes a majority of people not learn anything and just never learn from their mistakes and failures, and always have that basic income safety net to rely on even if all they do is play video games, get drunk every day, get stoned every day, abuse people every day, and just become a jerk to everyone because they have no responsibilities at all?"

I don't see how our current system prevents abusing people in any way that our system plus basic income would not. Regarding the others, I think escapist overindulgence in these things (and anything else on offer) is a problem we need better mechanisms for confronting. I don't think limiting people's resources is a necessary, sufficient, effective, or appropriate approach. Oftentimes people fall into these habits because they feel there is nothing they can do to improve their situation.

"I don't think this basic income (while it does sound nice) has not been properly thought through. Do you have any peer reviewed sources on it that I can learn more about it?"

I'm sure there've been plenty of economics papers in journals through the years, given that Milton Friedman was an avid proponent. Regarding an actual experiment with Basic Income:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mincome




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