>Maybe I'm looking at this naively, but I don't see what's preventing things from just costing more after UBI. If the government gives everyone $1000/mo so landlords raise rent by $1000/mo then the floor is unchanged.
Natural competition is supposed to keep that in check: Supply and demand dictates that in a free market (which UBI does not implicitly change), a landlord with a vacancy will try to offer a better deal than their peers who also have vacancies, with the direct incentive of getting units filled.
The idea is that some money (a rented unit provides more income than a vacant unit does) is better than no money, which incentivizes landlords to get units filled and making money instead of not making money -- in large part by competing on price. That's how supply and demand works.
In a free market, landlords can't really say in unison "Hey, I heard everyone has an extra $1k every month! So guess what: Your rent just went up by $1k! Suckers!"
I mean sure, some might say that -- or at least try to do that.
But the way it is supposed to work is that one of their peers goes "Yeah? Well, rent with me! I only raised rent by $700!" and another goes "Hey, I've got lots of vacancies! My rent only went up by $400!" and this rinses and repeats until the ultimate lowball of "Rents are up? Not here! Save $50 compared to last year!"
That's not to say that the concept is without flaws: Collusion can happen[0], and collusion fucks up pricing in an otherwise-free market.
But this kind of collusion is already criminalized, and criminals will both exist and collude with or without UBI.
(In an ideal reality free of criminal acts, rents must increase a bit if for no other reason than a properly-profitable landlord's expenses must also increase a bit: UBI isn't free to fund, and the haves must fund it more than the have-nots do. That's unavoidable. But it also can't be an increase of precisely $1k/month or whatever a UBI might hypothetically be: That's hyperbolic nonsense even with criminal landlords colluding to victimize tenants.
Fortunately for the concept of UBI in this context, landlords are kind of small potatoes here in a sea of others who also need to extract their pound of flesh to pay for it.
This kind of broad-scale wealth redistribution can be good, I think, but it does not happen for free.)
Natural competition is supposed to keep that in check: Supply and demand dictates that in a free market (which UBI does not implicitly change), a landlord with a vacancy will try to offer a better deal than their peers who also have vacancies, with the direct incentive of getting units filled.
The idea is that some money (a rented unit provides more income than a vacant unit does) is better than no money, which incentivizes landlords to get units filled and making money instead of not making money -- in large part by competing on price. That's how supply and demand works.
In a free market, landlords can't really say in unison "Hey, I heard everyone has an extra $1k every month! So guess what: Your rent just went up by $1k! Suckers!"
I mean sure, some might say that -- or at least try to do that.
But the way it is supposed to work is that one of their peers goes "Yeah? Well, rent with me! I only raised rent by $700!" and another goes "Hey, I've got lots of vacancies! My rent only went up by $400!" and this rinses and repeats until the ultimate lowball of "Rents are up? Not here! Save $50 compared to last year!"
That's not to say that the concept is without flaws: Collusion can happen[0], and collusion fucks up pricing in an otherwise-free market.
But this kind of collusion is already criminalized, and criminals will both exist and collude with or without UBI.
[0]: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/12/justice-department-...
(In an ideal reality free of criminal acts, rents must increase a bit if for no other reason than a properly-profitable landlord's expenses must also increase a bit: UBI isn't free to fund, and the haves must fund it more than the have-nots do. That's unavoidable. But it also can't be an increase of precisely $1k/month or whatever a UBI might hypothetically be: That's hyperbolic nonsense even with criminal landlords colluding to victimize tenants.
Fortunately for the concept of UBI in this context, landlords are kind of small potatoes here in a sea of others who also need to extract their pound of flesh to pay for it. This kind of broad-scale wealth redistribution can be good, I think, but it does not happen for free.)