Yes the article is badly misinformed and not really worth consideration.
That said there are much stronger arguments against UBI. There's a strong argument that UBI combined with current housing and spending policies... would simply end up in the hands of landlords. The article doesn't even mention "rent" but have no doubt landlords and banks are always waiting in the wings to capture virtually any surplus income. In practice UBI would have to be accompanied by government housing... and down that path lies ruin.
(Note the price of food and other necessities would likely not be inflated under UBI. Suppliers in these markets would -- unless they illegally collude -- end up trying to undercut one another to gain market share. In fact there's reason to believe UBI done right would drive down prices as the market as a whole becomes more dynamic. More money, more consumers, more competition, etc. But housing suppliers know that the banks are always ready to provide mortgages no matter how much they raise prices.)
A Job Guarantee [1] would be much more effective than UBI in virtually every way. Most importantly landlords couldn't consistently capture the additional income. There's, really, no reason to simply give the money away when there's plenty of work to be done.
Comments
Yes the article is badly misinformed and not really worth consideration.
That said there are much stronger arguments against UBI. There's a strong argument that UBI combined with current housing and spending policies... would simply end up in the hands of landlords. The article doesn't even mention "rent" but have no doubt landlords and banks are always waiting in the wings to capture virtually any surplus income. In practice UBI would have to be accompanied by government housing... and down that path lies ruin.
(Note the price of food and other necessities would likely not be inflated under UBI. Suppliers in these markets would -- unless they illegally collude -- end up trying to undercut one another to gain market share. In fact there's reason to believe UBI done right would drive down prices as the market as a whole becomes more dynamic. More money, more consumers, more competition, etc. But housing suppliers know that the banks are always ready to provide mortgages no matter how much they raise prices.)
A Job Guarantee [1] would be much more effective than UBI in virtually every way. Most importantly landlords couldn't consistently capture the additional income. There's, really, no reason to simply give the money away when there's plenty of work to be done.
[1] https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/6/16036942/jo...
I find the rent argument unconvincing. Free people from having to live near high concentration of jobs, and the competition for housing just explodes.
I don't like the current debt-based economy where almost infinite amounts of debt can be created in the first place.