this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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The differences between UBI and "welfare" are perhaps subtle but very important IMO.
In Australia there's an entire industry around punishing and humiliating people that need welfare. It's just absurd and unnecessary. UBI avoids any of that by just making the entitlement universal.
We have "job network providers" which IMO do not provide any value to anyone. Suppose in a particular region there are 4,000 unemployed people and this particular week there are 400 new jobs. To receive welfare you need to be working with a job network provider to find a job. However, those job network providers aren't creating any jobs. One way or another 400 people will probably get a new job this week. They might help a particular person tidy up their resume or whatever but they're not actually finding jobs for people. Their only purpose is to make receiving welfare a chore, it's absurd.
There's also people stuck in the welfare trap. As in, if I don't work at all I get $w welfare, but for every $1 I earn I lose $0.50 from $w, so why would I work a shitkicker job flipping burgers for effectively half the pay.
Slightly different systems, but in the US, welfare is a lot like that as well, especially punishing people by removing welfare or food stamps when they make X dollars.
The welfare trap is a feature of all means-tested social security systems.