Guaranteed Basic Income Not a Quick Fix, Says Lead Researcher
The lead researcher of a major study warns that guaranteed basic income isn’t a simple solution for economic challenges faced by low-income Americans
Guaranteed Basic Income, Sam Altman, Elizabeth Rhodes, OpenAI, Poverty, Economic Insecurity, Silicon Valley, USA
San Francisco: The lead researcher for a big study on guaranteed basic income, Elizabeth Rhodes, says the results are pretty complex. She emphasizes that while the study showed some positive effects, it’s not a magic solution for economic struggles.
Backed by Sam Altman, the study provided $1,000 a month to 1,000 low-income participants. Rhodes explains that although these payments had benefits, they also come with clear limitations.
Universal basic income, or UBI, means giving regular cash payments to all adults, no matter their financial situation. The study focused specifically on low-income individuals instead of a broader approach.
Over three years, the experiment aimed to see how these cash payments impacted people’s lives. The initial findings showed that recipients mostly spent the money on essentials like rent and food. They worked less but were still active in job hunting.
However, Rhodes points out that tackling issues like poverty is really tough, and there’s still a lot of work to be done. The study is ongoing, and new results are still coming in.
Interestingly, the latest findings suggest that after receiving the payments, participants valued work more, which challenges some common arguments against basic income. They also reported feeling less stressed and less food insecure, but those benefits seemed to fade over time.
Rhodes stresses that poverty and economic insecurity are complicated problems. She believes there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, and the findings reflect that complexity.
UBI has gained traction in Silicon Valley, with many tech leaders supporting it. Figures like Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk see it as a necessary response to the changing job landscape due to AI advancements.
Rhodes got involved in this research back in 2016 after seeing a blog post from Altman. At that time, she was finishing her Ph.D. and was new to the whole UBI conversation.
She mentions that the global interest in their findings was unexpected. The study wasn’t meant to be a policy proposal but rather a way to explore what happens when people receive unconditional cash.
In the end, the goal was to understand the real-life experiences of low-income Americans and the challenges they face.
Read the original article on Business Insider.