In a departure from "covid-19 proves what I always thought": on how the pandemic has changed my thinking on UBI: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2020/04/covid-19-universal-basic-income-benefits-welfare">https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/...

While I wasn& #39;t *against it*, in practice, I& #39;ve tended to feel that once you get beyond the abstract idea you end up with a policy that fails in one of three ways: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2020/04/covid-19-universal-basic-income-benefits-welfare">https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/...

1) Inadequacy. A surprising number of basic income proposals fall far short of what you& #39;d actually need to live on. Easy to fix, you just increase the amount. The problem is that you tend to end up with problem 2... https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2020/04/covid-19-universal-basic-income-benefits-welfare">https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/...

2) Inequity. A lot of the time the "people don& #39;t need it" argument doesn& #39;t matter all that much - the cost of, e.g. child benefit is life-changing for some people but if it isn& #39;t for you, you can& #39;t really entrench your advantages with £80. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2020/04/covid-19-universal-basic-income-benefits-welfare">https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/...

But if you actually have a decent UBI then you are handing people v large sums to entrench their advantage. Of course, you can fix that by clawing it back via tax. But that gives you problem 3... https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2020/04/covid-19-universal-basic-income-benefits-welfare">https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/...

...which is that at this point, you& #39;ve just created a more generous and less conditional welfare state, so why not simply start there? Well, there are some pandemic-relevant reasons: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2020/04/covid-19-universal-basic-income-benefits-welfare">https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/...