The longer I sit, the lazier I get.
For most of my career in the oil industry, my work was seasonal. I would work for months with only a handful of days off. When spring came or oil prices dropped, I found myself out of work for weeks or months at a time. For the first few weeks off, I would be active and productive. I would catch up on household tasks, visit friends and family, and take part in events.
Slowly but surely, I would find myself getting up a little later, putting off tasks a little longer, and going out less often. After a couple of months out of work, I wasn’t letting the world fall apart around me but I was becoming less productive. My drinking would increase and my social relationships would be pressured. Then I would finally get another contract and get back into the field to get myself together. It would take a week or two to get into working mode again and that was after only a month or two off work. Imagine how it is once people have fallen into years of unemployment.
Not everybody is like I am, of course. Some folks are excellent and productive with extended periods of idle time. We can’t pretend there isn’t a large segment of the population that would slip into a state of permanent state dependency if allowed to do so under something like a Universal Basic Income (UBI) scheme. There are enough people trapped in the welfare rut as it is.
In my travels, I have seen examples of communities dependent upon the state and how terrible it becomes. The longer people remain in that condition, the tougher it is to wean them from it. That’s why I always get very concerned when discussions of implementing a UBI system start hitting the news.
I needed to hire some labourers while there. I went to a government employment/welfare office and asked if they could help me out. A very enthusiastic employment counsellor told me he would spread the word right away. I didn’t care about the education level or experience of applicants. I wanted an in-person interview, though, so I could see their teeth and arms. Addiction was running rampant and I didn’t want to hire someone in need of treatment.
My phone began ringing and I quickly set up over a dozen interviews to be held at my hotel. During the two afternoons I had set aside for interviews, a grand total of zero applicants showed up. I ended up having to hire some subcontractors from upstate New York to fill the void. The employment counsellor I had spoken with phoned me and asked how it went. I explained what happened and he candidly admitted he had expected that. People applied for the job so they could tell their social workers they were trying, but they didn’t want to actually get hired. They had been sitting for far too long. They had no interest in working.
We need social safety nets. People fall on hard times sometimes due to events beyond their control or poor personal choices. As a compassionate society, most people support programs that offer people a hand up when they are down and out, whether it’s addiction treatment or employment training. We also support programs that ensure people aren’t homeless or starving.
Economic support should always be considered temporary, though, and not an end in itself. Recipients shouldn’t be shamed, but they should always be encouraged to become economically independent.
UBI programs don’t work that way. UBI gives people a flat amount of money with no expectations that they ever stop taking it. It is a perfect program to expand dependency among people.
Many naively think there aren’t many people who would take on UBI as a career. Sadly, whether we like it or not, many people would.
We are facing many economic challenges and must prepare for them.
UBI schemes don’t offer a path to prosperity. They only breed dependency and social dysfunction. Whenever the UBI idea balloon is floated, it must be quickly shot down. The time to shoot that balloon down is right now.
