70 objections to Basic Income and its implementation
Translated from the original Dutch by Pierre Madden except this page by Florie Barnhoorn
Une version française est en chantier.
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Basic income is a utopian dream or a fantasy
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Basic income is hype or a cult
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Basic income means free money and that is not possible
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Basic income is a new and still immature idea
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Basic income is a new label for the same old social security system
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Basic income is unaffordable or antisocial
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2. Values and philosophy of life
7. Reciprocity is necessary for the legitimacy of the social state and its moral support, that means that an unconditional basic income cannot be solidary
8. Having a paid job gives dignity, status and a sense of social integration, basic income will make people lazy
9. With basic income, young people no longer take the trouble to study
10. Only a small group of people is capable of handling freedom well
11. Basic income leads to an increase in the use of alcohol and drugs
12. Basic income is bad for the emancipation of women
13. The basic income lowers the participation of women at the labor market (they might stay at home to look after the children or take up other unpaid care work)
14. Talents remain unused
15. Basic income promotes overpopulation
16. People always want something more than they see with someone else, therefore they will begrudge someone a basic income
17. The group consisting of free-riders, maladjusted or anti-social people will grow, if there is basic income for everyone
18. Many are annoyed by the behavior of free-riders, profiteers and antisocial people. Those people don't deserve a basic income. If they should receive the payment, it would be disastrous for the acceptance of the idea
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19. The idea of a basic income goes in the direction of communism, and that is bad
20. Basic income is a socialist idea, that cannot work
21. It is a reprehensible neoliberal idea
22. Basic income creates an undesirable class distribution in society or a strengthening of it
23. Basic income increases the chance of ghetto formation
24. Basic income increases the power of the state and makes citizens passive and dependent
25. Basic income requires unjust redistribution and is actually just theft
26. Basic income is a Trojan horse, as soon as it is introduced, massive savings on government spending will be realized
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4. Economy
27. Basic income is unaffordable
28. UBI does not use sophisticated information and its goals are cumbersome and limited
29. A basic income causes huge inflation
30. UBI will lead to higher taxes and that is bad for innovation and industry
31. Basic income worsens the position of the Netherlands on the international market
32. Basic income will boost the informal economy, illegal transactions and fraud
33. UBI promotes consumption and is therefore a catastrophe for the environment
34. UBI means that fewer people will accept work and the economy will stagnate or shrink
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35. Nobody will accept unpleasant work after the introduction of UBI
36. Many people will be satisfied with the basic income payment
37. The loss of income due to unemployment will have a much greater effect with a basic income than now without one
38. If you give people a basic income, you will be pushing them aside
39. With a UBI, there is no need for paid work, and that deprives life of much of its meaning
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40. Basic income makes us all too dependent on government
41. Providing of cash to people is not a task for the government
42. A basic income turns us all into benefit claimants
43. Basic income will never be high enough to eliminate all bureaucracy
44. Basic income promotes government corruption
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45. The Netherlands on its own is too small for a basic income
46. Basic income promotes immigration, especially of economic refugees
47.UBI is discriminatory if not offered to foreigners, who want to settle here
48. Basic income promotes unwanted emigration
49. Basic income promotes the closing of borders
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8. An unconditional basic income will not solve the really important problems
50. People with a lot of debt are no better off with a small basic income
51. The scourge of growing inequality will not be resolved
52. Introduction of a UBI is not good for the environment
53. It is a solution from the world of systems, problems in the real world will not be solved
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54. Trade unions lose their positions of power and are therefore against the policy
55. Employment at social security agencies is at risk
56. A radical change in how we live together is of no interest to the ruling elite
57. Most people don’t like the idea of an unconditional basic income
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10. Procedures and institutions
58. It is not in our hands, it is up to other people to decide on basic income
59. The policy is too big to handle, governments only have a four year scope
60. There are so many other urgent priorities on the political agenda. UBI is a distraction.
61. Existing experiments are too small to assess the real effects of a UBI
62. If a UBI is implemented, and it fails, we won't be able to get rid of it anymore
63. Anyway, introduction of the policy in our country is impossible
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11. Amendments and modifications
64. Politics always leads to compromises that make our lives worse, not better
65. Under the name of a UBI, we are introducing very different policies
66. Others will benefit from UBI, rather than those who really need it
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12. Implementation
67. We should not start with this policy, the introduction of a UBI is far too complex
68. A UBI can’t be properly phased in: we will have two conflicting welfare systems
69. We start enthusiastically, ignoring all warnings of possible implementation problems
70. We cannot predict the long-term effects of a UBI
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