When talking to people who dislike UBI about UBI, they'll often say both that 'people need a purpose in life' and that 'nobody will work if they get free money'.

JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee to Showerthoughts@lemmy.world – 317 points –

Those seem incompatible to me.

(UBI means Universal Basic Income, giving everyone a basic income, for free)

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We already have means testing though and it barely helps anyone compared to how much help ubi would give to people.

The broader US doesn't have a means tested program though, sure you could argue that programs like SNAP etc are MT but they aren't BI programs. According to the LISC Institute for Community Power in 2022, a lot of guaranteed income pilots in the US are targeted to certain groups, or means tested, and show "extra funds are typically spent on food, health care, paying down debt and household needs. Full-time employment among recipients actually increased[...]" This is data from the Stockton pilot, but you can read more from the full source here

If it is means tested it is not basic income

See my other reply and if you want to argue please reply there, but TL;DR, means testing is basic income and arguing about the qualifications of a basic income doesn't help when it comes down to whether or not we should implement one.