New Scientist

What Happens if we Pay People Just to Live?

Hal Hodson, “What Happens if we Pay People Just to Live?” New Scientist, 23 June 2016.

“The most important arguments in favour of basic income are about improved health and well-being, says Louise Haagh, a social economist at the University of York, UK.” 

“Haagh thinks that a half-hearted implementation [of basic income] might entrench, not dissolve, social inequalities by offering rich and poor the same. Governments could end up subsidising companies that give few or no benefits to their workforces, while the lucky few with more conventional employment receive far more. The problem is that a poorly designed basic income ‘might not end up changing society that much,’ says Haagh.”