Thursday, October 27, 2016

Tyler Cowen Comes Out Against Universal Basic Income

His full argument is tortured in a way that could only come from someone who spends too much time inside the Beltway but, still, it must be an indication as to the way the wind is blowing if Cowen feels comfortable writing this in his Bloomberg column:
I used to think that it might be a good idea for the federal government to guarantee everyone a universal basic income, to combat income inequality, slow wage growth, advancing automation and fragmented welfare programs. Now I'm more skeptical...
It's fair to ask whether a universal income guarantee would be affordable, but my doubts run deeper than that. If two able-bodied people live next door to each other, and one works and the other chooses to live off universal basic income checks, albeit at a lower standard of living, I wonder if this disparity can last. One neighbor feels like she is paying for the other, and indeed she is.
BUT he wants to combat phony income inequality and phony automation concerns?

Has Cowen gone from being an economist to a Beltarian version of Paul Krugman?

Bottom line: If you offer to pay some people not to work, they will not work. If there is no "safety net," they will find a job.

This is not complicated.

 -RW

5 comments:

  1. But, according to Democrats, minorities and women are too stupid to find jobs in absence of a safety net. And they are too stupid to negotiate their own compensation packages in absence of a very high minimum wage.

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  2. "BUT he wants to combat phony income inequality and phony automation concerns?"

    Is "Technocratic Luddite" an Oxymoron?

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  3. He's far too close to Mordor-on-the-Potomac.

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  4. ─ "If two able-bodied people live next door to each other, and one works and the other chooses to live off universal basic income checks, albeit at a lower standard of living, I wonder if this disparity can last." Tyler Cowen ─

    Why does he have to wonder? This is exactly what happened during the time of the Roman emperors when people migrated from the fields to Rome to live off free bread. How long did that last?

    ─ If you offer to pay some people not to work, they will not work. ─

    Exactly. Even if you pay someone just a little, barely to make ends meet (in your own estimation) so that he or she does not stop working, you're going to find out two things VERY quickly: one, people aren't stupid and two, people can learn to live in a budget amazingly QUICKLY, just to avoid getting up early to work instead of staying home and play Call Of Duty all day with the guys.

    So NO, the answer is NOT to give people money for not working. PERIOD.

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  5. My wife works as a Hall Monitor at a local high school(I call her the Hall NAZI), I asked her if she could get the basic minimum income ($1500 per month)how long would she hold on to her job. Answer was long enough to dial the phone.

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