If UBI’s Stop People Working, Why Aren’t Billionaires Retiring?

Just a fun little argument you can make.

If you’ve heard anything about Universal Basic Income programs (UBI) you’ve probably heard one big argument against them:

“If you give people enough money to live off, they won’t want to work, and they’ll just sit around!”

This is sometimes even an argument against raising welfare to the bare minimum.

If you hear that, you should just ask:

“If having enough money to live comfortably stopped people from working, why do billionaires keep working?”

Why doesn’t Gina Rhinehart sell all her assets and retire to the good life, instead of continuing to work and telling poor people they need to suffer in poverty?

Having enough money to just live comfortably won’t stop anyone from doing good, meaningful, and socially necessary work. It will stop billionaires from exploiting workers’ labour for profit, however. And they hate that idea.

Speaking of ideas, I got the this very small but starkly illuminating idea from Victoria A. Goddard’s The Hands Of The Emperor. It’s a fabulous, rich, and fulfilling book. I love it. Go read it.