“Universal basic income usually covers people’s basic needs but we want to see what effect this unconditional lump sum has on people’s mental and physical health, whether they choose to work or not,” says Will Stronge, the director of research at the thinktank Autonomy, which is backing the plan.
Agreed, that’s an inefficient use of resources from a humanist’s perspective. Would UBI allow the homeless to move into the empty houses until they were pushed out by working people?