Could a Universal Basic Income be the answer to cost of living woes?

Is a Universal Basic Income merely a utopian concept, or can it be a viable solution that can effectively work in Australia? Experts weigh in.

4 comments

The costs of UBI are always thrown out as a reason it's not feasible, but if we actually taxed large corporations effectively I'm guessing that problem would go away.
- Unless this was enacted globally I could see larger corps leaving a nation that employed this strategy if it hit their bottom line hard enough.
Universal Basic Income sounds good in theory and personally I can see the benefits, though I doubt society would ever fully accept such a policy.

I do think that in the long term as more of our work becomes automated as technology accelerates something is going to have to change, UBI could be one answer to this issue.
UBI needs a successful implementation on a national scale somewhere before anyone will take it seriously.

Trouble with that is it's not just a redistribution of money but also power. If governments lose the levers to disqualify certain demographics from benefits that mutes the impact of porkbarreling and grift. That's a dealbreaker for some.