I was once talking with one of my classmates and he said that in the future, there will be universal basic income implemented by entire world. I was not convinced at that time and thought he is just being stupid but given the layoffs happening and massive amount of unemployment, I am thinking about this possibility. What do you say?
Do I think that it is a possibility? Sure.
Do I think that it is likely in the near to medium term future? No.
It’s way too complex for me to boil down to a simple slogan, and ain’t nobody got time to read what I’d need to write to sufficiently explain and I ain’t got time to explain it. Closest I can come is that UBI is “equality” in a system would currently benefit more from “equity”, at least from a US-centric stand point. I am not anti-UBI by any means, just more inclined to say that a strong, need-based social safety net would be more efficient and beneficial than a thin, wide-cast net like UBI.
Contemporary unemployment rates aren’t a great metric to consider for the necessity/utility of UBI. The current unemployment situation in a lot of the world is a symptom of inefficiency and instability in the system (hand wavy gesture). UBI doesn’t address the underlying factors, not that it has to. But at the same time, status quo and inertia are massive forces to overcome, and “different but the same outcome” isn’t the push that’s needed to get over that hump. So, I just don’t think we’re anywhere close to getting over that barrier.