&gt; But surely similar things would happen?<p>The difference between a UBI and an income guarantee like the Speenhamland system is that the latter is a means-tested program that eliminates the marginal benefit of additional work <i>and</i> requires more administration, while the former, because it is <i>unconditional</i>, providing a fixed benefit regardless of outside income, has less administration <i>and</i> preserves the marginal benefit of additional work.<p>&gt; Let&#x27;s say your wage is 30K per year. On Jan 1 a UBI of 12K per year is to be instated. What would happen to your wage in a year? Personally, given that most all businesses want us to be loyal to them with no loyalty returned to us, my guess would be that you are let go and someone would be hired to do your job for 20K per year.<p>If they could get someone to provide the value you do for $20K now, they would. If you think UBI makes that more possible, you have to believe that it also makes it just as much more possible that you&#x27;d be able to get someone else&#x27;s former 30K job for 20K of job income, which, with a 12K UBI, gives you a 6.67% increase in total income.