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A comment on The evidence behind putting money directly in the pockets of the poor. Parent comment

Re:The evidence behind putting money directly in the pockets... by luckylion on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @04:13AM (#23244507)
> 1. It's hard to tell how much costs would actually rise by.

That'll be pretty much the increase in pay multiplied by how much of the cost of a product/service is labor, for all things your might have to buy, which includes housing, health care, food.

> 2. UBI doesn't have to be enough to live on by itself. It just has to be universal and unconditional.

I believe that's a minority opinion. Not getting anything, or getting $1 a month, meets those standards.

The point of UBI, as I understand the proponents, is that "the basics" (the B in UBI) are taken care of. They will always include housing, food, clothing etc, usually health care and it's up for debate what else should be included (TV, computer, internet etc are frequently mentioned as necessary to live in a modern society).

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Re:The evidence behind putting money directly in the pockets... by regularfry on Wednesday May 20, 2020 @04:51AM (#23244732)
> That'll be pretty much the increase in pay multiplied by how much of the cost of a product/service is labor, for all things your might have to buy, which includes housing, health care, food.

Not quite. Employers would be able to reduce salary costs by an amount more than the UBI, because of tax band effects, so costs of production for a bunch of stuff goes down.

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