Universal Basic Income is Capitalism 2.0
I like the simple argument made here about UBI enabling efficient consumption.<p>I worry about three things with UBI though and they&#x27;re more social than economic.<p>1. Power Divide - society will be easily divided into two groups: those who depend on the UBI to live and those who don&#x27;t.  The former will be absolutely at the mercy of the latter.  We can see this a little bit with the coronavirus relief packages.<p>2. Predators - individuals and companies will find a way to take your UBI check from you as fast as possible.  We can see this in housing where some governments give poor people vouchers for rent.  Those vouchers are targeted by slumlords who find a way to give you as little as possible for them.  There will be rampant scams and bad behavior  in areas where the UBI makes up a larger portion of total income.<p>3. Charity - let&#x27;s say we actually give every person enough money for food, housing, and utilities. Some people will mess up. They could spend it all on an addiction or just make a bad investment.  Even with UBI they could still end up hungry or homeless.  Will we help them? Or will we say &quot;you had your UBI, the rest is on you&quot;.  This changes the morals of how we treat people in the worst times.<p>I wish all of the above wasn&#x27;t true. But I just don&#x27;t think America can handle UBI and I&#x27;m not sure how that&#x27;s going to change.