Response
Responding to @julie.bank14’s question “In your opinion, what are the biggest pros and cons of a universal basic income?”
I believe that when determining the pros and cons of UBI, you must make the important decision on whether or not to keep all other social programs. This would vastly change a pros and cons list, just as it would greatly change the impact on citizens.
If the United States were to keep its social programs and a Universal Basic income cost-wise, there would most likely be considered a con. To make up for the new spending towards UBI, the government would either have to redirect funds or raise taxes to support the large outflow of money. The redirected cost would most likely be from the social programs anyways since the line of reasoning is the added income would help pay for what the social programs are providing. The decrease in the social program's budget would hurt the overall efficiency and quality of the programs, while the UBI may not be extremely helpful. The overall effectiveness depends on how its used. By nature, the UBI would go to all citizens including the everyday millionaire who could add it to whatever savings account they so choose to. In this sense, the UBI is ineffective since the recipient already has more money than the majority of citizens. On the opposite end, the addition of a UBI could go a few directions, the money could be life-saving and allow families in poor areas to leave the poverty-stricken area or the money could be spent unwisely similar to how lottery winners spend all their money in one go. The pros of a UBI, if the money allocated did not take from social programs, could be very helpful in covering the medical costs, housing, food, or could be saved for future purposes. The added bonus of having both a UBI and social programs would really help those in need if they spend the money wisely.
On the other hand, if the United States were the get rid of social programs and replace it with UBI, the pros and cons list would look quite different. The pros list would look much shorter since it would be somewhat similar to the pros listed above. If the UBI would be given as a safety net or towards everyday costs it would be very beneficial to the citizens who need it. The cons on the other hand would be more detrimental to the average and below-average citizen. In the case of medical cost, if every citizen is given $10,000 a year, a typically necessary surgery could cost anywhere from $1,000 to $30,000. A specific example could be giving birth in the United States. At the moment Medicaid covers the cost of giving birth in the US, this also includes in the case of any issues, such as NICU children or birth complications. Now without any forms of insurance (as those on Medicaid), the cost of giving birth in the US is anywhere from $3,000 to $15,000, and in the cased of complications upwards of $30,000. So while of course, having the additional $10,000 would be extremely helpful and could pay for a surgery or two, the overall loss would be much greater since medical is merely one portion of social programs, not including schools, food stamps, housing assistance, etc. The point is typically the price of all the services that many people utilize is more than $10,000 a year, erasing the idea it could be used for any future safety nets. Also, to point out, when speaking of UBI within the last few paragraphs, I specifically target the low-income class, this is because that it who the UBI should truly be helping and targeting rather than those who can have an excess and have no use for an addition $10,000. In my opinion, no matter the situation, a large issue with UBI, is that it truly goes to everyone, rather than the same amount going to millionaires and a Mcdonald's worker, only those who are below a set threshold should receive an income, specifically to target bringing people above the poverty line.
