
Y Combinator Learns Basic Income Is Not So Basic After All - jonbaer
https://www.wired.com/story/y-combinator-learns-basic-income-is-not-so-basic-after-all/
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merricksb
Heavily discussed 2 days ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17851511](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17851511)

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mbesto
I like the idea and I applaud money being spent to investigate this, but this
isn't gonna work.

Testing basic income in an environment where BI doesn't universally exist
isn't going to yield any fruitful conclusions. The conclusions will be
caveated with "we gave basic income to people who's peers don't have basic
income and that could alter the results". This is why economics is such a
difficult practice to comprehend because behaviors don't work in a vacuum
(read anything by Kahneman and you'll understand).

On the other hand, if this at least gets the population to _think_ UBI makes
sense, even if we can't unilaterally test it properly, then I think that's a
good thing.

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i_am_nomad
This is exactly correct, and your objections apply at both a microeconomic and
macroeconomic level. UBI almost certainly would create widespread and profound
price distortions. Maybe a similar model would be what's happened with college
tuition. The government set out to make it "affordable" for everyone with
demand-side policies, and the supply side of the market responded by absorbing
the additional spending capacity by raising tuition geometrically.

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wes-k
Very exciting! While, I do believe basic-income is a part of the future, it
MUST be paired with providing other social goods. Public school, single payer
healthcare, cheap & healthy food, cheap housing, etc.

Without these necessities also being taken care of, there's a good chance
people will still not be able to make ends meet.

Seems likely that if a $$ value was ever set for basic-income it would be very
hard to move it. We could also _try_ and set it so it always changes and is
based upon cost-of-living. That itself is tough though since cost-of-living
varies so drastically.

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tfehring
Will recipients need to treat these outlays as taxable income? If so, it’s
worth bearing in mind that many of the eligible people will face a very high
marginal tax rate [0] if they lose access to government problems as a result,
especially if one or both of the chosen states didn’t expand Medicaid under
the ACA [1].

[0] [https://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2018/06/an-effective-
margina...](https://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2018/06/an-effective-marginal-tax-
rate.html)

[1] [https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/the-coverage-gap-
un...](https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/the-coverage-gap-uninsured-
poor-adults-in-states-that-do-not-expand-medicaid/)

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indogooner
IMHO for basic income to succeed esp the supplemental 1k type ine should have
more options of partial work. For instance I would like to work only 3 days a
week and building something useful or contributing to a social cause rest of
the week knowing I have a cushion of basic income. But the flip side is many
companies won't be willing to offer such jobs. At least I am not sure what
value I can add to society through this extra income if I still have to work
40 hrs a week.

~~~
derekp7
Actually there are too many part-time only positions out there. The trouble is
there is a lack of part time work in the higher skill / higher pay area --
most part time is lower skilled / minimum wage labor.

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dbelchamber
I have a feeling that Basic Income will be a societal upgrade and people will
still work, but I don't think it's going to solve wealth disparity. My gut
says that it will actually make disparity more obvious, just people at the
bottom won't be struggling as hard. Anyways, this is mere speculation. What do
I know?

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rqs
Maybe, but the people who live in the low life are really struggling to
survive. UBI can change that and given them an opportunity to arise.

Which is a good thing, does it?

Plus, give the future a little bit more time, when science and technology
become advanced enough, maybe the problem can be resolved naturally?

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Sami_Lehtinen
Dupe, comments:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17851511](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17851511)

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mtmail
The project homepage with details and FAQ
[https://basicincome.ycr.org/](https://basicincome.ycr.org/)

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appstorelottery
This is great! Kind of shocked that capitalism is looking to solve the
governments problem. Things are changing.

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paewohl
Since it's paywalled:

[https://www.wired.com/story/y-combinator-learns-basic-
income...](https://www.wired.com/story/y-combinator-learns-basic-income-is-
not-so-basic-after-all/)

