Over 22 thousand children die from poverty every day according to UNICEF and 3 billion people, almost half the world’s population, live on less than $2.25 dollars a day. While poverty is often portrayed as an abstract issue that is difficult to solve, this is simply untrue. Extreme poverty, along with a host of other issues, could be solved with one simply policy: the universal basic income.
A basic income will make workers more engaged and increase productivity. Globally, only 15% of workers are considered engaged in their jobs. In the United States, only 30% are engaged, according to a 2017 poll. However, these workers cannot leave their jobs because they rely on their jobs for income and to survive. If a a universal income were instituted people would be free to start new business, learn a new skill that would allow them to gain better employment, or take care of a sick relative. To be clear, a universal basic income does not result in a mass exodus from the labor force. For one thing, current welfare programs provide a monetary incentive not to work, whereas it always makes sense to earn additional money under a basic income according to the World Economic Forum. Experiments with a negative income tax, a proposal similar to a basic income that phases out as income increases, found only a marginal decrease in hours worked, mostly due to early retirement. What instead occurs with a universal basic income is a shift in workers. The World Economic Forum states “By unconditionally providing income outside of employment, people can refuse to do the jobs that aren’t engaging them. This in turn opens up those jobs to the unemployed who would be engaged by them.” This increases worker engagement. According to the Harvard Business Review, not only creates higher productivity. Additionally, workers have the freedom to seek jobs that better fit their needs. The World Economic Forum stated that a universal basic income “creates the bargaining power for everyone to negotiate better terms. How many jobs would become more attractive if they paid more money or required fewer hours?” A study from the University of Chicago found an increase in voluntary part time work, leader again to higher worker happiness and productivity. Therefore, according to the World Economic Forum, the universal basic income “creates prosperity.”
A basic income will end extreme poverty. According to the University of California at Davis 14.3% of the American population is in poverty. This would be virtually eliminated by a universal basic income. The city of Dauphin, Canada implemented a universal basic income for its citizens. All citizens were given a stipend guaranteed they wouldn’t fall below the poverty line. And for four years, no citizen of Dauphin was in poverty. Poverty reduction is important because poverty imposes heavy weights on those it affects. Real people would be helped by poverty reduction. In addition to the obvious benefits like secure housing, reduced food insecurity, and access to goods like computers and the internet that could lead to better paying jobs, reducing poverty will make people happier. According to Carol Graham of the Brookings Institution “Pain, worry, sadness, and anger (reported as experienced the day before or not) are also all significantly higher among low income cohorts than among wealthy ones, while reported satisfaction with life as a whole is significantly lower.” The experiment in Dauphin also revealed that reducing poverty does much more than just improve the economic lot of citizens. Poverty reduction will lead to great social benefits. According to the Guardian “The school performance of children improved substantially. The hospitalisation rate decreased by as much as 8.5%. Domestic violence was also down, as were mental health complaints.” Poverty does more than disrupt the economic lives of its sufferers; it disrupts their entire existence. People in poverty have worse health and educational outcomes than the affluent. The World Health Organization declared poverty to be the single biggest determinant of poor health, and in the United States, “While 60 percent of the wealthiest students complete their studies and graduate, only about 16 percent of low-income college students graduate,” according to Voice of America. Because of this poverty is incredibly expensive for a country. So, by reducing poverty, a country is lifting the economic burden that poverty necessitates. A universal basic income provides the mechanism for the reduction of poverty. As Rutger Bregman of the Guardian states “ The costs of child poverty [alone] in the US are estimated at $500bn each year, in terms of higher healthcare spending, less education and more crime. It’s an incredible waste of potential. It would cost just $175bn, a quarter of the country’s current military budget, to do what Dauphin did long ago: eradicate poverty.” While a universal basic income equal to national living wage would cost more, it remains true that it makes economic sense to eliminate poverty. By implementing a universal basic income, poverty would be substantially reduced, if not virtually eliminated. This is not only morally necessary to prevent suffering among low-income people, but makes economic sense.
A basic income will reduce inequality. Currently only labor based around the traditionally definition of work receives compensation. Women also do a disproportionate amount of this unpaid work; according to the New York times, “In the United States, women spend about four hours a day on unpaid work, compared to about 2.5 hours for men.” A universal basic income would change this. According to Rutger Bregman in Quartz “Of course this unpaid work is valuable and I think UBI is recognition of that.” A UBI could actually decrease the unpaid work gap, because fathers could take paternity leave without fearing being destitute. But a UBI does more than just recognize the unpaid work disproportionately performed by women, it frees women from dependence on men for economic stability. This dependence can actively harm women. Again from Quartz “a rape shelter in Vancouver that has voiced support for UBI, in part because it would give women the economic freedom to escape abusive relationships.” By implementing a universal basic income, women, who disproportionately do not work for pay, will have the ability to achieve economic sustainability, this will increase gender equality. This is more than theoretical, it has been proved by empirical trials. An experiment in UBI from India found “54% of women in basic income villages reported that household income was shared equally, compared to 39% women in control villages,” according to UNICEF. According to the Canadian Medical Association, in the Dauphin experiment, hospital visits for domestic violence decreased during the UBI experiment. The Universal Basic Income can also reduce income inequality. According to Michael Coren, since 1976 Alaska has provided all of its residents with a yearly stipend of about $2,000 per person per year. According to the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska ranked second best in the nation for income inequality,in 1981 in ranked 30, according to a paper by Thomas Husted. Additionally, according a paper by Kaplan and others, “Inequality in income increased in all states except Alaska between 1980 and 1990.” This reduction in income inequality is important because income inequality has severely detrimental effects. According to Anna Bernasek income inequality can lead to an increase in corruption and lower productivity. According to Michael Fissinger of Fordham University income inequality also entrenches the cycle of poverty, wherein poor people have little chance of escaping the circumstances they were born in. By providing a universal basic income, income inequality, and all of the negative consequences it brings, will be reduced, as the experiment in Alaska proves.
The universal basic income is not a panacea, but it will solve many of the world’s most pressing issues revolving around economics, like poverty, production, and inequality. These issues’ causes all revolve principally around a lack of money. A cash infusion such as the UBI would solve this.
Liberal Talking Head 