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Comment by vaadu | Hacker News Reader

Where is the incentive to get people off the couch looking for work or going to school?

Have you spend significant time unemployed or not in school? It's really depressing after a while. Sure playing video games and watching movies all day is great for a week or two during vacation but if that's all you do you will quickly find something else to supplement your free time.

Why is this a moral problem? [1] Isn't this a market problem that the market can solve? Basic Income would add actual liquidity in the labor market. If workers actually have the option not to work, then the market has to finally figure out how to make the worker want to work.

Maybe that competition would lead to better companies and better work.

[1] Other than the lasting impact of the Puritans on American society, of course...

Precisely. The article cites one economist who opposes BI for this very reason:

ROBERT GORDON: As far as a guaranteed minimum income, I’m not in favor of that. I’m in favor of a modest increase in the minimum wage, and a substantial increase in the earned-income tax credit, which encourages low-income people to work.

DUBNER: Why would you not be in favor of the minimum guaranteed income?

GORDON: There’s too much of an incentive, if you guarantee income, to replace work. And if you provide a guaranteed minimum income to everybody, then those with low skills will drop out of the labor force and will no longer work. So I think it’s a matter of incentives. A guaranteed minimum income would put a very high implicit marginal tax rate on going to work, for those with relatively low skills.

Inside every person, silly.

If I had a decent basic income, I wouldn't be working.

You wouldn't? What would you be doing?

If I had basic income that pays for everyday expenses, I'd be free to learn something (robotics/automation/mechanical engineering) and find a job in that industry...

I'd practice cooking, read a lot, and do some coursera/udacity/whatever courses, and see my friends and family more.

I may work as I do now, but only a day or two a week. That would only be if I got very, very bored though.

Hmm, well I'm quite sure you would apply that knowledge somewhere eventually, after resting for a while maybe...

But not everyone would. I really love my work. Fewer people in the marketplace would be good for me because it would drive up my wages, which means I could afford to do things that the average UBI recipient could not.

Also, it's not like UBI would solve all social problems. Many people who like to work in nonprofits today would continue to do so. Probably even more people would because they would have more of a safety net underneath them while they save the world.

That said, I'm skeptical of a UBI. Too many unknown consequences.

Money is just an abstraction for actual goods and services produced by the economy. If your wages go up, presumably so does the wages of those whose services you consume.

If less people worked, the economy would produce less and we would be worse off.

Who's on the couch?

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