Issues with UBI

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 The economic principle I’m exploring is “incentive” My research question to help me study the economic principle is “How does UBI change incentive to work?” The article published in Huffington post titled “The Case Against Universal Basic Income” demonstrates this economic principle because it argues that UBI gives to government the incentive to give the rich even more power, as UBI would make the government and by extension the general populace much more dependent on them. First, many major corporations would just move overseas to get away from being taxed so heavily. This would dramatically impact the economy for the worse. For UBI to truly work, every country would have to be in on it to ensure that companies cannot avoid being taxed.

 Second, even if they did not move overseas, major corporations would now have even more control over the government, since the government would then be significantly more dependent on the taxes they get from major corporations to run everything, giving them even more sway over the public and their lives.

 Third, UBI, as it is commonly understood, is merely a bandaid for vast inequality. It would not redistribute wealth on a large scale, but it might stop growing resentment from the general populace towards the rich. Huffington post writes “the deeper collusion of governments and capital can only lead to the further alienation of citizens. We are in the cusp of a citizen rebellion across the developed world. It would be foolhardy to suggest that, somehow, citizens will be quelled by UBI to the extent that they relinquished their rights, privacy and well-being to decisions made behind closed doors between politicians and high tech, or energy, executives.” As good as it sounds to be able to get money for free from the government, is it worth the control major corporations will have over all our lives? On the other hand, corporations already control so much, though, I wonder if UBI may actually be worth the cost--how can corporations have even more control than they already do? Is there something else to billionaires pushing for UBI than governmental control? I wonder if there is a way to keep corporations from having such control over everything in the world without having some sort of world wide revolution. In my next blog post I will research: Why *do* so many billionaires want UBI?