UBI in the Real World
Utopians and their schemes always put me in mind of the comment the late Peter Drucker once made about business schools: “In business school classrooms they construct beautiful models of a non-world.” I completely understand idealism. But idealism separated from reality and human psychology, like Utopia, will never come to fruition because of … well … reality and human psychology.
One of the Utopian ideas that surfaces from time to pie-in-the-sky time is that of the universal basic income or UBI as it’s known in our abbreviation-mad world. According to Investopedia, UBI is:
A government program in which every adult citizen receives a set amount of Money regularly. The goals of a basic income system are to alleviate poverty and replace other need-based social programs that potentially require greater bureaucratic involvement.
Well. Those two sentences are about as packed as they can be with red flags, aren’t they? Here are three:
#1: Government program. What could go wrong? What’s its real agenda?
#2: Every adult citizen receives a set amount of money regularly. How much? For what?
#3: Replace other need-based social programs that potentially require greater bureaucratic involvement. Can anyone name any government program that doesn’t include bureaucratic involvement? Government is bureaucratic involvement.
Say What?!
Terms like universal basic income and abbreviations like UBI also remind me of George Carlin’s routine about euphemisms. If we weren’t trying to soften the effect of UBI or obfuscate its reality, we’d call it what it really is — Ultimate Backhanded Ingratiation. That’s right. It’s a scheme to ingratiate the aggrieved in an effort to get their votes. Plain and simple.
If reality and human psychology were taken into account by the politicians who espouse this shit (it never is), they’d be able to tell us the truth. If reality and human psychology were taken into account by all of us who listen to this shit, we’d understand the inevitability of the findings of the study recently reported in Reason, under the title, “Bad News for Universal Basic Income”. Here’s a synopsis:
Researchers found that giving people $1,000 every month for three years resulted in decreased productivity … The participants in the UBI group were less productive and no more likely to pursue better jobs or start businesses, the researchers found. They also reported “no significant effects on investments in human capital” due to the monthly payments … “You can think of total household income, excluding the transfers, as falling by more than 20 cents for every $1 received … This is a pretty substantial effect.”
Decreased productivity. Imagine that. Take away my incentive to produce, and I don’t produce. Wow! Who’d a thunk it? Reward me for doing nothing, and I’ll do nothing. Promise me that in perpetuation, and you’ll have my vote. That should be as plain as the dollar signs in every grifting politician’s eyes.
Brothers and Sister, Let Us Think
To place the notion of Ultimate Backhanded Ingratiation into meaningful context, let’s think about what it won’t do. And in that context let’s consider this definition of motivation from PositivePsychology.com:
Motivation is an internal process. Whether we define it as a drive or a need … motivation endows the person with the drive and direction needed to engage with the environment in an adaptive, open-ended, and problem-solving sort of way … The essence of motivation is energized and persistent goal-directed behavior. When we are motivated, we move and take action. Motivation is influenced by the satisfaction of needs that are either necessary for sustaining life or essential for well-being and Growth … Psychological needs for autonomy, mastery, and belonging direct our behavior … As do the needs for achievement, power, closure, meaning, and self-esteem.
Ultimate Backhanded Ingratiation won’t motivate or provide incentive for (among many other things) drive; need; adaptive, open-ended problem-solving; goal-directed behavior; action; autonomy; mastery; achievement; power (or agency); closure; meaning; and self-esteem. So, then, what the hell are we doing?
First, we’re institutionalizing apathy and laziness. Second, we’re creating dependence. Third, we’re sapping creativity and initiative. Fourth, we’re reducing opportunities for fulfillment and self-satisfaction. Most contemptibly, we’re buying votes for the career politicians who push UBI.
Do I have a heart? Yes. Do I recognize (A) some people legitimately need help and (B) some people are prone to laziness, greed, manipulation, and exploitation? Yes. Do I think a one-size-fits-all approach like UBI has a snowball’s chance in Hell of achieving what grifting politicians say it will? No. And they know it before they make any promise, UBI or otherwise.
Human beings have been on the planet for 200,000 years, give or take. If we were going to achieve Utopia, we’d have done it by now. If we were going to genetically engineer — or politically mandate — equality, we’d have done it by now. It’s not going to happen, kids. And UBI won’t change that.
In other words, it won’t work in the real world.
What time is our wake-up call?
Originally Published on https://www.bizcatalyst360.com/category/lifecolumns/notes-to-self/
