&gt; <i>Sure, if everyone today had an extra guaranteed $1,000 every month, it would short-term be fantastic. But the economy would eventually adjust, as it always does. Rent would slide upwards, so would goods prices, etc, to the point where we wind up where we are today with minimum wage (perpetually raising it every few years in a never-ending game of cat and mouse, the essential cost of living).</i><p>If implemented by idiots, I agree basic income would tend to result in the consequences you describe [1]. It is very important that any implementation of basic income also do away with minimum wage at the same time. If a person is currently working a job which pays them $1500 &#x2F; month, then ideally basic income would result in (assuming that we agree on $1000 &#x2F; month as the minimum subsistence-level income) that same person making $500 &#x2F; month at the same job, and receiving $1000 &#x2F; month in basic income.<p>So to be clear, anyone currently getting a wage exceeding the agreed-upon basic income level, should not see much difference in how much they take home each month.<p>Properly done, the only price inflation you should see are from people who are seeing more money each month than they were before, because they were previously working at below-subsistence wages. But even then, they were probably receiving other government assistance anyway, and with basic income we&#x27;d start phasing that stuff out as well.<p>[1] Which, I admit, means it stands a good chance of happening that way. Difficulty of proper implementation <i>is</i> an argument against basic income, but it is also reflective of our broken, irresponsible government.