Halfway through:<p>> <i>These estimates are based on a universal basic income paid for by increasing the federal deficit. As part of the study, the researchers also calculated the effect to the economy of paying for the cash handouts by increasing taxes. In that case, there would be no net benefit to the economy, the report finds.</i><p>> <i>"When paying for the policy by increasing taxes on households rather than paying for the policy with debt, the policy is not expansionary," the report says. "In effect, it is giving to households with one hand what it is taking away with the other. There is no net effect."</i><p>TL;DR: If we create money, there's more money in the economy. If we don't create money, there's not.
I think it is really dangerous to hand over an amount of money that lets people completely check out of contributing to society. Alone maybe that is a sketchy amount to live off of but with roommates in an inexpensive area without a car it seems very doable.<p>If you look at the amount of entertainment you can get from a used cheap desktop computer and internet connection along with the low cost of at home production of marijuana/alcohol I think it would be disastrous socially and economically.<p>Maybe that is overly pessimistic but I'm far more in favor of minimum wage elimination with government wage substitution up to some higher livable minimum and in the case that someone can't find a job the government acts as an employer of last resort creating some sort of busywork that has some social benefit.
Wait a minute, though: Every adult gets $1,000/month. That's $12,000/year. How many adults do we have? Well, the US population is 326,000,000. Median age is 37, so I'll guess that 3/4 of the population is "adult" (age >= 18). That means that paying this handout will cost $12,000/person * 244,500,000 people = $2.934 trillion. That's... not a net win.
Do people actually believe this universal basic income nonsense? If money isn't scarce but goods are the goods become proportionally more expensive. Inflation is a thing.
It would <i>not</i> grow the economy. You <i>grow the economy</i> by creating more goods and services. When you inject money without adding goods and services, the result is inflation.