Universal Basic Income--For or Against? A Debate

Universal Basic Income--For or Against? A Debate: Karl Widerquist (Georgetown University-Qatar) and Oren Cass (Manhattan Institute) Wed., Oct. 30, 4:30 pm in Filene Auditorium

Wednesday, October 30, 2019
4:30am – 6:00pm
Filene Auditorium, Moore Building
Sponsored by: Political Economy Project

The idea of a government-guaranteed income for everyone has made a meteoric rise to prominence in just the last few years, in the United States and around the world. Karl Widerquist (Georgetown University-Qatar) and Oren Cass (Manhattan Institute) will debate the merits of this, one of the hottest policy proposals of our time.

Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2019, 4:30 pm in Filene Auditorium (TBD)

Co-Sponsored by the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Political Economy Project.

[CountJinsulaOfficial]

Oren Cass, like Bernie, assume I love being in a dead end job... anytime someone preaches the worship of work instantly loses credibility to me. It shows how out of touch they are. Jobs don't make people happy and improve their lives. Careers and ambitions do. It is near impossible to pursue a career in today's day and age because the system supports only the top end and doesn't let anyone else get there.

A Universal Basic Income gives the common people leverage into this system. They now have a floor to pursue their passions. I can't tell you how often I get caught in job-lock.

[alexl]

I'm more convinced by UBI everyday, but I'm very happy to see this subject actually debated by informed debaters as opposed to the ultra-shallow soundbites that its afforded on the "Presidential Debates" stand.

[sondorp]

see if i had a basic income.

i would want to work even more. Because of the basic income. And it d be much easier to apply for a job with a basic income as the job will really be your choice and not somebody else 's choice for you!
and if i had a basic income
i would, when making enough money also see myself give 10 or 20% of it away to some good cause and i believe more people would be doing that.

That s all part of the multiplier effect of such a basic income.

[johnb]

Great debate.. loved it.. convinced me UBI is the way to go... off to research more on Andrew Yang.

[lukegrove]

I keep seeing comments like "this is impossible, UBI proponents are living in a Fantasy Land"


Seriously? That's your argument against UBI?
LOL every single invention Humanity has EVER created began in Fantasy Land. When Humans first figured out how to harness fire, it required someone to imagine such a thing was actually possible, and then think about how to actually do it.
When the Wright Brothers figured out human powered flight, it first required them - and quite a few other people - to imagine that such a thing was actually possible and then think about how to actually do it.
When Humans put one of their own on our nearest satellite, it first required them to imagine that such a thing was actually possible and then think about how to actually do it.

Give me an example of a single Human invention that ever occurred without first living in that Fantasy Land and coming from that place to develope said invention.


Money is an idea - it literally only exists in our heads. The Laws of Economics are not laws at all, they are a mutual agreement between all of us, and we can change the nature of that agreement any time we want to.
Take away the mutual agreement behind Money and it is literally nothing more than scraps of paper and lumps of metal. Nothing more.
Somehow we keep forgetting that.

[Telltaletracks]

Oren lost a lot of credibility when he claimed that Medicare for all would force taxes to rise by 39%. I live in a country with universal healthcare, we don't pay anywhere near that tax level. This is not a thought experiment. It's been done. Misrepresenting it is not inaccurate estimation, it's being calculatedly disingenuous.

[gjk]

andrew yang will make history! the smartest candidate exist in america. even tough ubi is not his idea but he make it best and complete.

[howimade]

greg mankiw already endorsed ubi..why are these guys wasting their time.

[aesopsaintours]

The idea of wage subsidy is so stupidly shortsighted, an economist ought to be ashamed to have seriously suggested it.

In my opinion, the greatest value of UBI would be the negotiating power it affords the laborer: by paying everyone a wage to exist, you would INCREASE wages paid in the labor market. At present, jobs need workers, but not nearly so badly as workers need jobs. Without a job, a worker simply dies. But if someone negotiating into the job market has the ability to walk away, then suddenly employers really have to compete. High skill workers see this already: from the eighties until the last five years, programmers had high salaries because they could always turn down a job offer that was too low and find another one quickly. But minimum wage workers don’t have that room, unless they know that their most essential living conditions are taken care of.

A wage subsidy would provide pressure in exactly the opposite direction. If wages were set at a minimum of $7.25, as is US federal law, and a subsidy was offered to raise it to $15, then jobs have NO incentive to ever offer higher than $7.25, knowing the government will make up the difference. Workers never face an incentive to negotiate upwards, for the same reason. There is also no incentive for promotion to higher pay, for either party, and thus no incentive to do exceptional work.

It is exactly the sort of handout to the rich that the opposition argues against. It would not improve the lives of the unemployed, it would cheapen payroll costs, and it would still fall upon the the taxed middle class to pay for.

[SilverLakeKingdom]

UBI would reduce crime rate by a large margin. When people have money they shop more often, the go places, they feel happy. All funds for this activity would go back to local businesses and government. UBI is an answer for a healthy, happy, wealthy and prosper society.

[arkitekrb]

The people who oppose it are the people who were able to live in good condition

[Tubeytime]

Basic income is *NOT* provided by the government, it is *DISTRIBUTED* by the government. Don't let anybody fool you with that one.

[jason]

Listening to the argument against UBI it occurs to me just how psychotic our culture of greed is. It is not about just gaining more personally, but gaining more than others. Looking down on the poor with great pious judgement is just plain sadistic

[ChosenOne_]

The thing that annoys me is that some people will end up working at McDonalds type jobs. Whatever the reason is, these people that work jobs that they probably don't like and on top of that, they barely have enough to survive. Now, I'm not saying that the people that work these jobs are inferior to other people or anything like that, it's honest and hard work and I respect every one that works. But let's be real, no one wants to end up working these type of jobs that aren't very gratifying and on top of that, you have shit pay. Some people have bad luck in life or learning disabilites and jobs nowadays require more and more specialized training/schooling. I think it's not fair for these people and I feel bad. Again, not to downplay their hard work or anything like that, but these are the facts. So right now, I'd like to see a small UBI, and I don't mean like so much moeny u don't have a reason to work anymore, just a little bit more per month so these people can live better lives. Also, with AI, I believe that robots are gonna take over soon and eventually, humans wont be needed anymore and when that happens, there will have to be UBI. And I think that when humans don't need to work anymore and we have UBI, then I think this will be the greatest thing to ever happen to humanity. Every body will have all the time in the world to chase their dreams/passion and everybody will be equal. I think the system we currently have is SICK, it's sick. Sickening to my stomach.

[Rev_Kim_Love]

Where is the discussion about the MIND freedom that would be created once the grinding stress of meeting ones basic needs are removed? In other words the creative energy to address these problems in innovative ways will be released once the mind prison of scarcity and human unworthy-ness is removed. Derogatory Labeling of people in order to keep people in their place has to go! Let’s switch our thinking to EVERYONE is deserving of basic living and see what happens. What do we got to lose? We’ve been living the old paradigm long enough.
Power to the people❣️

[stevecoley]

Even the magical goose needs food, unpolluted water, shelter and love in order to lay golden eggs.

[thesweetshopman]

It seems a very spurious argument to compare UBI to disability benefits, in relation to disincentivising work.
UBI is by it's very nature Universal, you get it if you work or not.
Disability benefits by the very complex way they are setup ensures you never try and work again or even volunteer for fear of losing said benefit.

[notsocrates]

Gonna be real, Oren’s take sold me on UBI more than Karl’s. Describing all the things that are only sustained by needing to work to survive made me consider just how much things are simply forced to work in the name of survival, without regard for human happiness, and really it’s terrible to say that keeping the system because it forces people to do things they don’t want to do is good for the sake of forcing people to do things they don’t want to do.

[titisenegal]

If Oren Cass had been invited to speak first, he would have said 80% LESS as most of his talk centered on silly rebuttals. Listen to him carefully, he has almost no arguments against UBI. To simplify his "long" charades, he's only saying one thing: we HAVE the monetary resources, but it's going be hard to juggle btw UBI and universal healthcare. Hmm.. The rest from him is even more irrelevant, and it is exactly what's wrong with us Americans. We see work = identity, while the rest of the world sees work is work, and there's so much more outside of work. So to all the 18 years old out there, $1000 a month will turn y'all into good for nothing drug addicts or world-travel loafers. Wow. What an insult to Widerquist to call this a debate.

[Slowpw]

Oren used the singularity argument in relation to automation, because it's the most far fetched future concept, thus distancing his point from the fact that a lot of near future technology and automation is going to revolutionize and transform a lot of different industries in the next 100 years. It is ignorant not to assume the job market and contemporary way of life are developing towards a more automated future.