More Problems a Universal Basic Income Can Solve

I have been writing about basic income for several years now.  I have presented a great deal of evidence that the cost of a basic income is far outweighed by the benefits.  I have presented the numbers showing that we can afford a universal basic income, and the price is only slightly higher than all of our mediocre welfare put together (not counting Medicaid, because even a basic income can't fix healthcare).  The evidence indicates that a basic income would massively improve our economy.  We could reduce to cost of certain parts of government by eliminating minimum wage.  The free market would be more free, because everyone would have a vote (you can't vote with your wallet when it is empty).  This is not all though.  There are more problems a basic income would fix that I have not mentioned, and I want to look at two of them right now.

The first thing basic income would fix is the abortion debate.  A significant number of people think it is wrong to kill unborn children.  A significant number of other people think that personal convenience outweighs the right to life of children that have not yet been born.  The fact, however, is that most abortions are not a matter of convenience.  Some abortions are about convenience.  Some abortions are about health concerns.  Most abortions are about finances though.  Abortions most often occur because someone got pregnant who does not feel confident that she can provide for the child.  According to Guttmacher Institute, 49% of abortion patients are living below the Federal poverty level, which other studies have shown to be barely over half what the real poverty level in the U.S. is.  60% of abortion patients are in their 20s, and 59% of abortion patients already have children.  What is the solution to this, according to researchers?  Better access to contraceptives.  This is tragic.  It is also discriminatory.  The suggestion is that poor women don't deserve to have children.  We tacitly accept that these women shouldn't be having babies, because they are poor.  This is tragic.  This is especially tragic in a nation where birthrates are at 1.9, two points below the sustainable birth rate of 2.1.  Unsustainable birth rates are bad for the economy, but this is trivial compared to how we are treating poor people!  If the right wants to fix the abortion problem, it can dramatically reduce abortions by demanding a basic income!  A universal basic income guarantees that even teen moms can afford to give their children the level of care that they need.  The left benefits too.  It asserts that women should have better control of their bodies.  It suggests that women have the right to get abortions if they want them, but the fact is, they don't!   Elective abortions are a minority.  Most abortions don't happen because the mother wants to kill her unborn child.  They happen because the mother knows that she cannot afford the costs and still care for her other children.  In addition, a basic income would guarantee that women who legitimately don't want to have a child have access to contraceptives!  This would do far far more for guaranteeing that women have control of their bodies than making abortions legally easy to get!  The left and the right can both get what they want when it comes to abortions by pooling all of the money they are currently squandering fighting over whether or not poor women who wouldn't get abortions if they could afford to keep their babies and put it into demanding a universal basic income!

The second thing is racism.  Racism is still a serious problem in the U.S.  All of the legal anti-discrimination measures over the years have only managed to push racism underground.  It has become so integrated into our culture that most people don't even realize that they are doing it.  Studies have even shown that black people are racist against other black people!  Show a black person an image of a white kid wearing stereotypical clothing for white kids (tee shirt and jeans) and an image of a black kid wearing stereotypical clothing for a black kid (hoodie and baggy pants), and the black person will report being more fearful of the black kid.  Black teens have significantly lower graduation rates that while teens.  Black people are more likely to be in poverty than white people.  Black people are paid less on average, for the same jobs, than white people.  Black people are more likely to be on government welfare programs than white people.  Black people are more likely to be involved in crime than white people, and they are even more likely to be convicted of crimes, whether they are innocent or not.  Black people are more likely to be the targets of police brutality or even police framing.  The fact is, while Americans are no longer overtly racist, our culture has become so covertly racist that black people are treated like second class citizens, even by other black people and the government.  The first step in eliminating this deeply embedded racism is to take away the poverty that drives many of these things.  Poverty and crime are strongly correlated, and studies have found that removing poverty reduces crime.  Studies on basic income specifically have shown substantial decreases in crime rates in places with basic income.  A basic income will allow black people to compete for equal pay, because they cannot be coerced by their poverty into taking jobs that don't pay fairly.  As crime decreases, it will be easier to identify racism against black people by law enforcement.  Eventually it will become clear that the old black stereotype is false, and hopefully that will lead to fairer outcomes in court for black people.  Studies have also shown increased graduation rates in places with basic income, which means that black kids will have better opportunities for the future.  Eventually racism will start to look stupid, not because of the social stigma that comes with overt racism, but because discrimination will result in lost opportunities for racist people, harming racist businesses and providing better quality of life for people who choose not to discriminate.  In short, universal basic income is the road to an America that is more fair and equal for everyone.

This second item extends beyond racism though.  It will also improve the situation with respect to gender discrimination.  Women will be able to compete on more level ground for fair pay in the workplace, because single women and women who have to act as providers will not have to accept discriminatory pay just to make a living.  People who discriminate against women will also miss valuable opportunities, giving fair people and businesses a better chance.  Over time, business culture in the U.S. will evolve to be more fair to women, as businesses that are discriminatory are pushed out of the marketplace by businesses that are more fair.  And this won't require legal force either.  It will happen naturally, because fair treatment of women and minorities will give businesses a significant advantage over those that discriminate.  Civil rights won't need to be driven by the government, because it will be driven by natural market forces instead.

Basic income has only one substantial cost: Money.  The cost in money of basic income can easily be covered to over 75% by the funding currently allocated to programs it would replace.  It would allow the elimination of minimum wage, which many businesses would be willing to accept in trade for fewer tax cuts in an amount sufficient to cover the 25% or less remaining.  In exchange for slightly higher business taxes it would provide an enormous number of very substantial benefits, from a significantly improved U.S. economy, to better overall productivity, to solving most of the abortion problem, to reducing and perhaps eventually eliminating discrimination against minorities and women.  It would reduce crime, increase job satisfaction, improve education, eliminate poverty, create more participation in the free market, allow more sustainable birth rates, and prepare for the number of jobs to continue to decrease without mass starvation or economic collapse.  All of this and so much more, and ultimately it will pay for itself just in eliminating minimum wage.

Basic income should be the easiest, most obvious solution to an enormous number of the most important problems the U.S. is facing today.  Instead of spending our time and money lobbying for or against abortion, gay rights, feminism, income equality, and many other trivial problems, we could be pooling all that money into one unified pot to solve our most pressing problems along with many of the more trivial problems in this list.  We are wasting so much on stuff that is only marginally important that we are missing the one thing that could solve more problems and more important problems than anything else.  We need a basic income, and we need it more than any environmental problem, civil rights problem, or class division problem.  I know not everyone agrees on the topic of the government providing support for the people, but if there is one compromise we can and should make, it is one that will solve many other problems to the satisfaction of both major ideologies.