Universal basic income (UBI) has supporters across the political spectrum. The idea is that if every citizen received a payment from the state to cover their living costs, it this will allow them the freedom to live as they choose.
But voters who turned down a UBI pilot in a recent referendum in the German city of Hamburg apparently found something to dislike. A frequent argument against UBI is that recipients will decide to work less. This in turn will make labour (and consequently labour-intensive products) more expensive.
Indeed, a recent study on a UBI experiment has found that recipients of an unconditional monthly transfer of US$1,000 (£760) were significantly less likely to work. And if they did work, they put in fewer hours than a control group who received only US$50 per month.
Giving everyone a “basic income” does nothing to shift wealth from rich to poor. You are thinking of just standard redistributive welfare, which is a great policy to achieve that, if implemented correctly and fairly. UBI is something very different from this, for a very different purpose. Read up on political economics to learn more about it.
If you cant see how UBI has a bigger benefit for the poor than the rich, I dont even know what we are discussing here. Certainly not UBI.