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Some people are being given thousands of dollars with no strings attached in universal basic income trials. They mostly spend the cash wisely.

www.businessinsider.com Some people are being given thousands of dollars with no strings attached in universal basic income trials. They mostly spend the cash wisely.

A common question about universal basic income, or UBI, is how people spend the money, but early trials are showing promising results.

Some people are being given thousands of dollars with no strings attached in universal basic income trials. They mostly spend the cash wisely.
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Economics @lemmy.world MicroWave @lemmy.world
Some people are being given thousands of dollars with no strings attached in universal basic income trials. They mostly spend the cash wisely.
BasicIncome @lemmy.world testeronious @lemmy.world
Some people are being given thousands of dollars with no strings attached in universal basic income trials. They mostly spend the cash wisely.

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  • My point is that people with more money would have more "fun" money, and people with less money would have more room for essentials.

    You'd think the bigger market would be to pull at the people with "fun" money, rather than the people who can now afford a well-rounded diet.

    Yeah, things will go up in price. It's like when minimum wage goes up. But in all the studies I've seen on minimum wage going up, the minimum wage earners generally win out over rising prices (being better off after the increase).

    I'm sure some store has done the math that it's better to sell 2 boxes of cookies to the poor guy than to raise the price to get the maximum profit off of an individual box. And then there are places with competition...and some staples are already generally competitive (such as bread) to the point of being loss leaders in grocery stores.

    • I certainly hope you're right. All I picture is the dollar stores suddenly becoming $2 stores as everything just shifts to be more expensive with very few people improving their financial situation at all.

      • The funny part is that you're describing things that are happening in my country and we don't even have UBI.

        Our Dollar stores are already $2+ dollar stores. Anything that's $1 is smaller than it was a decade ago, or is fewer units than it used to be.

        The price of all kinds of stuff is increasing in price, and rent is already completely unaffordable, including places that are multi-hour commutes away from the places with jobs.

        Someone working full time at minimum wage will not make enough money to rent a studio apartment, let alone also be able to afford groceries and other essentials. They'd need to rent a room, get a second job, or be born 10 years earlier and be in a rent-controlled place.

        So yeah, with UBI, more people are going to be able to do things like...

        • Afford rent. Our rents are already very inflated, and many people are rent controlled where they are. And if UBI is only for citizens, we likely wouldn't see a huge skyrocket as a lot of new renters are newcomers to the country.
        • Quit their second jobs. This would improve the job market by making more jobs available, and putting pressure on employers to make jobs better.
        • Improve their employability and skills. We have caps on tuition that make it relatively easy for people to afford school, but even student loans don't make it possible for most people to attend unless they have income or savings. And not many people can go to school while working two jobs. This will also improve the job market, and our productivity/GDP as a whole.

        Things will get more expensive. But we live in an open market. Stores and brands will compete with each other for some of that extra money. Some people will be spending it on "fun stuff", and I think that's where we'd see prices increase the most. And I'm okay with new video games being $120 (like they used to be sometimes!) if it means we get UBI.

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