Stockton residents got $500/month basic income, spent on food, clothing, bills
The interesting questions surrounding UBI are macroeconomic in nature.  How does it change the economy?  We know that consumers need money in order for the economy to function.  The question is whether basic income is an efficient way to provide it to them.  Is it even possible to give everyone free money?<p>These trials are just testing how individual people respond to unconditional direct cash transfers.  We already know that people are better off if they have more money.  Not super interesting.  It&#x27;s not changing the economy <i>around</i> them.<p>Not that they would, but even if everybody just spent their basic income on booze and drugs, it wouldn&#x27;t really be evidence against the effectiveness of basic income.<p>The choices aren&#x27;t UBI versus no UBI.  The choices are UBI versus all the convoluted ways we currently try to push money to consumers through the labor market.  To the extent that we&#x27;re creating jobs to push money to workers, we&#x27;re not creating those jobs because there&#x27;s actually work that needs doing.<p>If we calibrate the amount of the basic income to the economy&#x27;s productive capacity, then we can allow the labor market to be efficient.  In an efficient labor market, jobs only exist because there&#x27;s actually work that needs doing and the only purpose of wages is to provide an incentive for people to do that work.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.greshm.org&#x2F;blog&#x2F;poverty-is-optional&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.greshm.org&#x2F;blog&#x2F;poverty-is-optional&#x2F;</a>