A Basic Income for Everyone? It's Not a Crazy Idea

If there’s one policy that can unite socialists and Silicon Valley libertarians, it’s universal basic income -- a regular payment from the government to each and every adult, regardless of income. Many socialists like the unconditional nature of the program -- like Social Security, it has the potential to avoid arousing the anger of higher-earning people who feel they’re being forced to pay for those who don’t work. Indeed, polls reveal a plurality supports the idea in the U.S. and a majority supports it in Europe. Meanwhile, some in the tech industry believe that as machine learning and other technologies continue to replace human labor, basic income will be the only way to guarantee large portions of the human race a decent standard of living.
QuickTake Universal Basic Income

As a policy with support on both the left and right, UBI also has critics on both sides. On the right, many worry that UBI would increase poor people’s income to the point where they won’t need to work, reducing overall economic output. Many unions and thinkers sympathetic to the labor movement, meanwhile, worry that a transition away from work will both reduce human dignity and blunt the political power of workers. Critics tend to favor ideas that reward poor people for employment -- wage subsidies, government job guarantees and increases in the earned income tax credit.