Universal basic income: Utopia or future reality

Abstract

The global economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic has further stimulated the interest in the universal basic income (UBI). Proponents believe that UBI, in addition to reducing poverty and economic inequality, can be a useful instrument for mitigating the effects of the crisis and at the same time an important bulwark in creating a completely different economic and social paradigm. UBI reaches beyond economic policies and is a matter of moral and social commitment; it is at the same time a program and an ideal that radically changes society by strengthening mutual responsibility and solidarity, strengthening reliability in institutions. The implementation of the UBI places justice as a stronghold of social reality; it connects the categories of economic and social value and blurs established assumptions between labour, capital and well-being. The paper presents the basic features of UBI and some obstacles in its implementation. The possible role that basic income can play in the changes in the structure of employment and productivity brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution are discussed and examples of countries that have designed pilot projects of customized UBI according to different models are given. Criticisms of the concept are presented, among others, that UBI violates the principles of rational economic behaviour and the intrinsic meaning that work brings to people; the problem of moral aberration or the inadequacy of the role of the state to take full responsibility from the individual to cover the necessary costs of living; as well as the problem of the huge costs that states may have in designing and implementing UBI programs, which is ultimately reflected in possible tax increases or inflationary risks. Special attention in the paper is paid to the issue of economic sustainability of UBI.